THE PRESIDENT: Gosh, thanks for that warm
welcome. It's an honor for me to be here today to talk about
a subject that's dear to my heart and a subject very important to the
country, which is the education of every child in America.
I just had the honor of meeting with a panel of experts from not
only the state of Pennsylvania, but from around the
country: teachers, soon to be teachers, people who deeply
care about the education of every single person. And I want
to thank them for their input. I want to thank them so very
much for their idealism. And I want to thank you for your
commitment to our country.
Three months ago I had the honor of signing what is called the no
child left behind act. It's a piece of education reform, and
I believe we'll have -- it was the beginning of a
new era of education in America. Through high standards and
accountability, we're going to make sure that every school in America
is ready to teach.
Now we must take another essential step. We must make
sure that every child enter school ready to
learn -- every child -- not
just one, not just a few, but every, single child. On this
issue we know what works and we know our
responsibilities. And as parents, teachers and care givers,
we must give our children the life-long gift of early
learning. And today, I'm here to outline specific measures
to help meet that goal.
Before I do so, I want to say how sorry I am that my wife, Laura,
isn't with me. The reason why is because early childhood
education has been a life-long mission of hers. In Texas and
in Washington, she is a strong advocate for reading to our nation's
youngest children. She will work to bridge the gaps between
scientists, policymakers and care givers on this issue. I'm
grateful for her leadership. America is beginning to
understand why I asked her to marry
me. (Laughter.) A lot of people are still
wondering why she said yes. (Laughter.)
I'm also honored to be traveling today with Rod Paige, who's the
Secretary of Education. You know, when I came
to -- I was trying to figure out who best to
serve in that important position. I wanted somebody who had
worked in the trenches. Rod was the superintendent of
schools in the Houston Independent School District. He
believed in setting high standards for every child and believed
strongly in accountability. And his record was a good one,
because more and more children were learning.
And so I'm honored that Rod took time out of his life to come up to
Washington, D.C., to serve our nation, and he's doing a fine, fine
job. (Applause.)
I want to thank Dr. Spanier, Graham Spanier, for his hospitality.
It's good to see you again, sir, and thank you for being the President
of Penn State. (Applause.)
I want to thank Ed Tomezsko, Dr. Tomezsko, for his hospitality on
this beautiful campus. Thanks for letting us
come. (Applause.)
I appreciate my friend the Senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen
Specter, for being here as well. Thank
you. (Applause.) The governor of Pennsylvania,
Mark Schweiker, is here. Thank you, Governor, appreciate you
being here. (Applause.) And I want to thank the
Attorney General, Mike Fisher, for being here as
well. (Applause.) And I want to thank my friend,
the Congressman, from this part of the country, Curt
Weldon. I appreciate you being here,
sir. (Applause.)
It's a constant reminder to America that one way to fight evil is
to do some good. If you're interested in helping our
country, love a neighbor like you would like to be loved
yourself. Today, out at the airport, I got the honor of
meeting a fellow named Stan Braxton. Stan used to work for
IBM. And he's retired, but he hasn't quit
working. Because what he decided to do was to help make
people's lives better. He works in an after-school
program. He provides technical assistance to nonprofit
organizations in the Philadelphia area.
I appreciate you coming, Stan. Do you mind standing up
for a second? Thank you for coming. (Applause.)
Out of this incredible evil done to our country is going to come
some good. I truly believe it. And part of the
good is that the armies and the soldiers -- the
soldiers in the armies of compassion are going to increase all around
America. More Stans will say, what can I do to help
America? Stan is a living example of somebody who puts
service to mankind ahead of his retirement, for example. And
so, Stan, thank you for serving as a great example for our
country. (Applause.)
You need to know that even though the subject of today's talk is
early childhood development, I am going to be relentless and tireless
in our pursuit of justice and to make sure the homeland is
secure. We fight for not only the security of our country,
we fight for freedom. We love freedom in America, and we
will defend freedom at all costs. (Applause.)
And we long for peace. We want peace all around the
world. In order to make sure the world is peaceful, we must
stand strong against terror and rout out terror wherever it
exists. And as the war continues, though, it is important
for our nation to remember we have other important
responsibilities. As we fight to defend our ideals, we must
also work to realize those ideals.
We stand for equal opportunity. It's one of the ideals
we believe in, in America. And equal opportunity demands
schools that are effective and excellent. We must give all
our children, every single child in America, the basics of knowledge
and character. And we must leave no child behind.
My administration will not be distracted from these
goals. As we fight for freedom, I also understand that
freedom means no child in America will be left behind. The
new civil right in America is reading. We made a tremendous
start in our country when it comes to education reform, because of the
hard work of both Republicans and Democrats. I signed a
significant piece of legislation that sets high standards, requires
assessment in grades three through eight, accountability, to determine
whether or not our children are actually learning. And if
they are, we will have the basis to praise the teachers who are working
tirelessly to see so. But if not, we'll have the capacity to
correct problems early, before it's too late.
This bill offers new resources to schools, a lot of new resources
to encourage success, and options for parents in the case of failure.
Accountability is now at the center of American education, because we
believe every child can learn in America. We don't accept
excuses, and we want to make sure no child is left behind.
Yet, for accountability and annual assessments to mean something,
all children must start school with the basic skills necessary for
learning. In order for this piece of reform to really work, we've got
to make sure that every child starts at the same point. If
we expect achievement from every child, all our children need to begin
school with an equal chance at achievement, is what I'm saying.
Every child must have an equal place at the starting
line. Not some children, not just those who live in rural
Pennsylvania and not those who live in urban Pennsylvania or
vice-versa: every child. That is the national
goal.
From years of research -- and, as I say, this
campus has today hosted some of the great researchers in
America -- we know what an equal chance at
achievement means. It certainly means encouraging a child's
social and emotional development. No question about
that. But it also means that children, before entering
school, know letters of the alphabet and begin to know the sounds these
letters make.
They must learn what the written word looks like, and must build a
strong vocabulary. And they must be excited about reading,
because they've seen others do it. The way to make a child
excited about reading is for them to watch others
read -- like their parents. Reading is
the foundation for all of learning. And that foundation is
built early by exposing young children to the wonders of books and the
uses of language. Reading to a child early and often can change a
child's life.
Like many parents, Laura and I saw this firsthand. Ever
since our twins, our twin daughters were toddlers, we would read to
them at every possible opportunity. Sometimes when I sleep
at night I think of "Hop on Pop." (Laughter.) We
found it to be fun. And it's important for parents to
understand that it's a part of the responsibility for being a good mom
or a dad to read to your children.
But it's more than just fun. It is a vital pre-school
learning experience. Consider this amazing
finding: 10th grade reading scores can be predicted with
surprising accuracy from a child's knowledge of the alphabet in
kindergarten. Think about that. We can pretty
well predict how well a child will read in the 10th grade if that child
has been given a -- whether or not the child has been given
a good education early in his or her life.
A child who cannot identify the letters of the alphabet in his or
her first year of school runs a real risk of staying behind in school
throughout her or his career. We cannot accept this in
America. To close the achievement gap in our schools, we
must close the early childhood education gap in our
society. Today, I pledge my administration's support in
working with parents and families, Head Start and child care centers
and our states to achieve this goal.
Every child who goes to school, every single child, must be ready
to learn. As many of you know, as I mentioned, parents play
a huge role, play the most important role. A parent is a
child's first and most influential teacher -- for
many children, their only teacher until kindergarten.
For most parents, helping their child learn is a joy, it's not a
chore. Yet, learning activities really are not common
enough. And we must encourage parents in this essential
responsibility of preparing their children to learn. We must
help them.
Many parents wish their children came with an instruction
manual. All new parents need good information about child
development. that's for sure. So later this month, Laura will be
launching a series of booklets based on the best scientific research
that give suggestions on child development at crucial early stages of a
child's life.
I've asked the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human
Services and Agriculture to make these publications widely available to
families with newborns all across the country. These
publications will be offered through a variety of programs that serve
our nation's families: WIC clinics, state departments of
education, state health and human service agencies.
The White House and these agencies will also have these booklets
ready, available on line. I want to thank Laura and those
who have helped her design these books for working hard to make this an
incredibly important issue in America. And all these efforts
will promote early childhood learning where it matters
most -- right there in the home.
After parents, Head Start centers have some of the greatest
potential to encourage early childhood learning. Many of
them are already doing a terrific job. We had a chance to
hear from one such center today.
Laura and I were deeply impressed by the Margaret
Cone Center in Dallas, Texas, which uses a curriculum rich
in pre-reading and vocabulary development activities. Before
this curriculum was introduced in 1994, graduating classes who left the
Cone Center and entered the local public schools scored as low as the
21st percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. After
1994, after this scientific-based curriculum had been introduced, Cone
classes have scored as high as the 94th percentile in
vocabulary and reading.
It matters what the curriculum is in these centers. Head
Start centers are a federal responsibility, and we're determined to
encourage the kind of quality that we see in centers such as the Cone
Center. We must focus Head Start on the pre-reading and
language development of children.
So the Department of Health and Human Services will implement an
accountability system for every Head Start center in
America. In addition to providing essential health and
social services, centers must enhance activities for children to
acquire language and number skills. These activities can and
should be done in ways that are appropriate for younger children, in
ways that work.
Every Head Start center in America must teach these skills and must
demonstrate that its teaching is effective. We want to make
sure that we understand -- that the Head Start
programs understand we know what works. We want to measure the
input. We want to say that, in return for federal taxpayers
help, we expect you to be providing the foundation for reading and
math.
And to help Head Start centers meet these standards, we'll begin a
major new effort to prepare Head Start teachers. In order
for this to work, we must give our Head Start teachers the tools
necessary to meet our goal. Our goal is to reach the nearly
50,000 Head Start teachers over the next 12 months by giving them the
tools necessary to teach basic skills to our children.
This summer the Department of Health and Human Services will give
intensive, research-based training to 2,500 early literacy specialists,
who will then instruct Head Start teachers around the
country. And starting today, we'll distribute a guidebook
for early childhood educators and care givers. It's called,
"Teaching Our Youngest." It contains proven teaching
activities to help children develop their language abilities, increase
their knowledge, and discover a love for books and reading and
learning.
We're also asking states to do their part. The federal
government provides states with considerable funds for child
care. In fact, over the past decade, federal funding for
early childhood programs has nearly tripled. Yet, many
children are still showing up in kindergarten not ready to
learn. That's going to change.
We propose that states receiving these federal funds must submit a
plan to promote early childhood education. States must take
steps to provide pre-kindergarten programs with guidelines on
pre-reading and literacy skills, and they must have a plan to expand
the training of child care and preschool teachers in their state.
Just as states care about health and safety of children's bodies,
they must also care about the health and progress of the children's
minds. I know your governor cares a lot about that here in
Pennsylvania. (Applause.)
Anyone who is serious about educational reform must be serious
about early childhood education. If we want all our children
reading by the 3rd grade -- and that's what we
want -- then all our children must be ready to
learn on their first day of school. This will require
Americans to work together -- families, teachers,
care givers, civic groups, along with
government -- on every level.
I look forward to working with leaders in Congress on this
important issue, especially Senators Kennedy and Gregg, and Congressmen
Boehner and Miller. Here's what I think: where
America's children are concerned, there is no Republicans or
Democrats. Only moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas, all
eager to help our youngest citizens succeed.
As we try harder to serve our children better, we ought to keep in
mind the wise words of Theodore Geisel -- he,
better-known as Dr. Seuss, the guy who wrote "Hop On
Pop." (Laughter.) "Children want the same things
we want, to laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and
delighted." We want our children, even the youngest children
in America, to be challenged and entertained and delighted by
learning.
This is a responsibility of every parent, and it's a great calling
for our great country. Thank you for coming, and may God
bless. (Applause.)