GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: President Clinton goes to Capitol Hill a week from today to deliver his final State of the Union address. Today, he'll preview one initiative which offers help for college tuition. CNN White House correspondent Chris Black has a report for us -- Chris.</s>CHRIS BLACK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Gene, President Clinton says for this his final year in office, he will be proposing the most ambitious set of proposals since his first year. Today the topic is education. Within the hour, the president will be proposing a major initiative: new tax breaks to help middle income families afford college. The College Opportunity Tax Cut would give families with incomes of up to $120,000 the option of taking either a tax credit or a deduction for up to $10,000 a year in tuition and fees. This amounts to a tax savings of as much as $2,800 a year. This applies to any post-secondary education, including graduate school and vocational education. The president also wants to increase Pell Grants and work-study money by $1 billion a year. The total cost of this initiative, $30 billion over the next 10 years. A similar proposal went nowhere last year in Congress, but White House officials say they believe that public pressure will cause the Republican Congress to consider these proposals this year. And speaking of politics, the Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, and someone who would like to join him in the Senate next year, Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be joining the president for this announcement at about 1:00. This is an issue with a lot of appeal to suburban middle income voters, and polls in New York show that Mrs. Clinton is lagging behind her likely Republican opponent, Rudolph Giuliani, with those voters in New York State. Chris Black, CNN, reporting live from the White House.
President Clinton Expected to Preview New Initiative to Make College More Affordable