For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 5, 2002
President Joins Mrs. Bush at Teacher Quality Conference
Remarks by the President at White House Conference on Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers
The East Room
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all for coming to the
White House. I appreciate the focus of this summit, more
than you can possibly know, because I understand the important role a
teacher plays in the lives of our children. I've had some
firsthand experience with teachers playing a role in my
life -- I married one. Thank
goodness. And I appreciate Laura's leadership on this
important subject, and I also appreciate the calm and steady demeanor
she brought in time of crisis for the country. Good job.
(Applause.)
I want to thank Lynn Cheney for being here, as well. She
is a brilliant lady who knows a lot about education
reform. Dick and I both married above
ourselves. (Laughter.)
I want to thank Rod Paige for being here. You know, when
I picked somebody to run the Department of Education, I was looking for
somebody who had actually been in the trenches of the public school
system. I really didn't want a theorist, I wanted a
practical person. And when I was the governor of Texas, I
noticed that the test scores for children who weren't supposed to learn
in Houston, Texas were improving. And I realized it had to
do with a lot of the leadership capacity of our Secretary of
Education.
I want to thank you, Rod, for being here today, and thank you for
taking on the tough jobs.
I appreciate Sandra Feldman. I'm going to say something
about her a little later on. Where's Sandra? Hey,
Sandra. Thank you for coming.
I want to thank my friend, Mark Yudof, who's the head of the
University of Minnesota. Where are you,
Yudof? Anyway, there he is. Hi,
Mark. Charles, how are you? We flew back from
Minnesota last night, and Mark is here because he understands that
teacher colleges must be relevant in the lives of teachers if we want
every child to learn.
I appreciate the members of Congress who are here. I
will tell you that I signed a really good piece of
legislation -- the No Child Will Be Left Behind
legislation. It is historic; it is landmark; it would not
have happened without Ted Kennedy. And I appreciate your
leadership on that, Senator. (Applause.)
I want to thank Johnny Isakson for being here. Johnny
and Ralph Regula, thank you both for coming. Lindsey Graham
is here, from South Carolina. Lindsey is going to sponsor a
piece of legislation that will allow for teachers to have
loan -- those who teach in Title I schools or
teach in high need areas will be able to forgive up to $17,500 in
college loans. And I appreciate that. (Applause.)
I understand Chairman Boehner was able to listen to Laura, but
didn't care about hearing me. (Laughter.) So he
left. And Susan Collins is going to sponsor legislation for
the tax relief for teachers' out-of-pocket expenses, which I'll talk
about a little bit, too.
But we've set a high bar here in Washington as a result of federal
reform. We expect a lot. We expect children to
learn. We believe every child can learn, and we want to know
whether they are or not. We want to measure. See,
we believe that if you hold -- if you use the
accountability system properly, you can determine whether a curriculum
is working or not, whether classroom instruction methodology is
working. But, as importantly -- more
importantly -- you can detect problems early and
secure them before it's too late. Every child matters, and
that's exactly what the heart of this legislation is all about.
And as a result of the piece of legislation, we're expecting a lot
from our teachers. We really are. We expect them
to know their subjects. We want new teachers to be able to pass
rigorous examinations so as to not only earn the confidence of parents
and administrators, but to increase the professionalism of a very
important field.
We expect teachers to be able to communicate basic skills, and we
expect our teachers to welcome measurement and
accountability. We expect them, as always, to be examples to
our children, to live a life of good character. And our
teachers have a right to expect certain things from us. First, they
have the right to expect every parent to teach their children good
manners and respect for the teacher in the
classroom. Teachers have the right to expect support for
their professional development. And teachers have a right to
be treated like the professionals they are.
Laura and I will spend a lot of time in the country honoring the
teaching profession, making sure it's clear to Americans from all walks
of life that being a teacher is noble and important, and an incredibly
important part of the future of our country.
This administration is committed to a goal, and I know it's shared
by members of Congress, that we'll have a quality teacher in every
classroom in America. We have backed that commitment, thanks
to the work of members of both political parties, with the greatest
federal investment ever in quality teachers and
principals. We have made $3 billion of grants available to
states to recruit, to prepare, and to train teachers; a 35-percent
increase over last year's budget.
We're focusing much of the teacher training effort on specific
needs, like special education or math or science, and one of my
passions, early reading. The Reading First program is aimed
at making sure every child of every background can read by the third
grade. Reading is the new civil right. If you
can't read, you can't realize the great American Dream. We
want every child to read, and I believe with the right focus, right
effort, every child will read in America. And the country is
going to be a lot better off for it.
We're going to make sure teachers have the tools necessary to meet
the goals we've set. One of the things we're going to do is
create a clearinghouse, the most recent and most reliable information,
on what works in teaching. We want teachers to be able to
access the best information. We want those who are interested in
improving their skills to be able to do so at the click of a
mouse. We want to make sure the teachers control their
classrooms.
And part of the legislation I signed was the Teacher Protection
law, which says that teachers and principals and school professionals
can take reasonable actions to maintain order and discipline in the
classroom without fear of a federal lawsuit.
I think that if we really are sincere about supporting our
teachers, we must understand that a calm classroom, a respectful
classroom is a necessary ingredient for a teacher to be able to do his
or her job.
We support teachers who sacrifice for their students. I
don't know if people realize this, but on the average, teachers deduct
up to $400 -- now spend $400 out of their pocket to pay for
supplies. My first reaction is, that's not
right. It's not that the fact isn't right, it's not right
that they have to do that. But in that they do have to do
it, it makes sense to allow a teacher to deduct that
expense. If a business person can deduct a meal, a teacher
certainly ought to be able to deduct the cost of pencils or a Big Chief
tablet.
Teachers need our support. And they need our support in
more than just training teachers; they need our support in empowering
teachers. And one of the important parts of the bill that I
signed divests power out of Washington, gives teachers more flexibility
in the classroom and more authority to the local districts.
And that includes the flexibility to spend the money wisely.
Districts will be able to use the $3 billion to meet their specific
needs. It may be in recruiting, in recruitment for
teachers. It may be to spend money on teacher
development. It may be to meet needs by spending more money
on teacher salaries.
But flexibility is one of the hallmarks of this new piece of
legislation, and all wisdom isn't here in Washington. The
truth of the matter is, if we really are going to set high standards
and expect people to meet them, we've got to trust the local folks to
chart the path to excellence. And that's what this bill
does.
We're not only giving them more responsibility, we're giving them
freedom. The great task of education reform is now to meet
these goals and to make sure our teachers have got the capacity to do
so -- to make sure they're well-trained; to make
sure they've got the best science available to them; to make sure we
gather information and share it with the professionals in the
classroom.
It's also to recognize the worth of teaching. And one of
the things Sandra Feldman has done as she's led the American Federation
of Teachers is she's brought a lot of class to the teaching
profession. I ran into Sandra -- she said, is
there any way we can work together? I said, you
bet. You bet there is.
And so today it's my honor to announce that the Department of
Education and the American Federation of Teachers is going to work
together to provide teachers with research-based information, to make
sure teachers can do their job. Teachers will be given the
opportunity to teach, to understand what works.
Somebody said, what does it mean, "scientific-based"
education? My attitude is, does it work? Does the
curriculum actually teach a child how to read? Our teachers
must know how to teach reading. They must know what works
when it comes to teaching reading, if we expect them to meet national
goals of every child reading by the third grade.
I look forward to hearing the progress that is made between the
Department of Education and your organization, Sandra, as well, they're
going to work together to identify programs that encourage and prepare
folks to become teachers. I know you've heard of Teach For
America, or Troops For Teachers. There are all kinds of ways
we can attract people into the teacher ranks. And we must be
innovative and creative to do so. We're going to need 2.2 million
teachers over the next decade in order to make sure America is an
educated society.
And again, Sandra, thanks for taking a leadership role.
I believe so strongly in education. I know that as we
battle the ills of our society -- poverty and
hopelessness -- education is the great beacon and
the great hope. I strongly believe that our public school
system will continue to meet the challenges of the 21st
century. And I'm not afraid to advocate change where change
is needed. And I look forward to joining forces with those
who are just as committed as I am to an excellent public school system;
as committed as I am to battling a system which oftentimes gives up on
children by just simply shuffling them through. That's
inadequate for the America that I know, because every child matters and
every child counts.
We've laid the groundwork, Senator, for a reform movement that will
recognize the worth of each and every individual. And that
movement will be fulfilled as we make sure our teachers are given the
tools and skills and orderly classrooms necessary to achieve a grand
and noble objective for our country.
I want to thank you all for coming for this very important
conference. May God bless your work, and may God continue to bless
America. Thank you. (Applause.)