For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 11, 2001
Remarks by the President to the People of Concord, North Carolina
Concord Middle School Concord, North Carolina
Listen to the President's
Remarks
11:55 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very
much. Okay. "Dr. O." (Applause.) Thank
you for your hospitality. It's an honor to be
here. I want to thank you all for coming. Before
I talk about a subject which is dear to my heart, which is education;
and before I recognize all the distinguished guests, I do want to say
that right after my visit here I am going to meet with the family of
Petty Officer Third Class Steven Blocher. (Applause.)
As you know, Steven is one of our 24
servicemen and women in China. I'm really looking forward to letting
Steven's family know that we're in the process of bringing their son
home. (Applause.) Steven grew up in Charlotte,
and I know this entire Charlotte area and I know this entire community
joins in looking forward to welcoming him home.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to tell the
Blochers how much America appreciates their son's patriotism and
service to his country; and how much we appreciate the service of our
men and women in uniform throughout the world. (Applause.)
Situations such as this remind us how much our
military personnel and their families sacrifice for our
freedom. It also reminds me, it's such an honor to be the
Commander in Chief of such wonderful people. (Applause.)
It's also an honor to be here in the great
state of North Carolina. (Applause.) I've got a lot of
friends here, and I'm grateful. (Laughter and
applause.) It's also good to get out of Washington, D.C. on
a regular basis. (Laughter and applause.) It kind
of reminds us that there is -- it helps us stay in touch with
reality. It's important to listen to people who are on the
front lines of making their communities a much better place. And
there's no better place to listen and to say thanks than our schools
all across America, where people are working their heart out to make a
difference in the lives of our children. So, first, I want
to thank all the teachers who are here. (Applause.)
I don't know if you know this -- and I'm sorry
the First Lady is not with us, she's heading down to Texas for the
Easter break; I'm following shortly thereafter, I want you to
know. (Laughter.) One of her missions, besides
making sure every child can read, is to remind folks about how
important it is and what an important profession teaching is; that
teaching is a noble profession; and that for the youngsters who are
looking for something to do after college, become a
teacher. Or, for those who have just gotten out of the
military, become a teacher.
We need good teachers in
America. We need people to understand what an important job
it is. So for those of you who are thinking about something
to do when you get out of junior high, then high school, then college,
give teaching a shot. It will not only change some child's
life, it will change your life for the better, as
well. (Applause.)
It's good to see Phil Kirk. Phil,
thank you very much. I was honored to be escorted around the
school by a man I proudly called "Mr. President," Graham
Boone. (Applause.) I appreciate Senator Edwards
being here. Senator, it's good to see you, sir. I
appreciate Congressman Hayes. (Applause.) I can assure you,
on the ride in from the airport he gave me a full briefing --
(laughter) -- about every single aspect of this community. He pointed
out every NASCAR garage, and every four-lane highway that needed to be
expanded. (Laughter and applause.)
Congressmen Coble, Ballenger and Taylor are
also here. I want to than you all for coming, and I
appreciate your loyal support. (Applause.) I
guess when the President shows up, all kinds of elected officials come,
and I appreciate your coming. The Mayors, the Mayor of
Charlotte and the Mayor of Concord. I want to thank you both
for being here, as well. (Applause.)
It's good to see Mike Ward again. I
saw Mike just the other day. Thank you, Mike. And it's good
to have members of the statehouse: the Speaker and the
leader of the Senate on both sides of the aisle. It reminds
me, seeing both Republicans and Democrats from the statehouse here,
that when it comes to education, there really isn't -- there isn't a
need for partisan bickering. When it comes to education of
the children, it is right for people of both parties to come together
and figure out how to get the job done. And that's what's
happened here. (Applause.)
I know that's what's happened here in North
Carolina. It also happened in the state of Texas when I was
the Governor -- that we said we'll have our time for political
bickering; but when it comes to important issues like education, we'll
set aside political bickering and focus on the children. And
as a result of people from both parties being able to work together in
our respective states, North Carolina and Texas have made great
progress.
I know that some other states don't like to
hear this, but at one point in time, the National Education Goals Panel
analyzed which of the states in the United States were making the
greatest gains on student achievement. And it turned out our
states were: North Carolina and Texas. (Applause.)
And I attribute that to the fact that people
from both political parties were willing to work
together. Something Washington, D.C. needs more of, by the
way. (Applause.) We need less name-calling and
finger-pointing and more focus on what's right for
America. And a good place to start is when it comes to the
education of our children.
Now, there's another reason why our states did
well. It's because we adopted a philosophy that makes
sense. It starts with setting high expectations for every
child. Ours are states that have said every child can
learn. We're not one of these states that said, some of the
children can learn; or, maybe a handful of the children can
learn. We started with the philosophy that every child can
learn, and that's the right attitude to take. And also a
philosophy that said we're going to set high standards for every child
-- not high standards for suburbia, or high standards for inner city --
high standards for every child is part of our political
philosophy. (Applause.)
Oh, I know there are difficult
circumstances. But that is not an excuse to lower
standards. You see, if you lower standards, you get lower
results. If you set the bar low, you're going to get results
that are not satisfactory for having a tomorrow that we want for every
child. So the first part of our common philosophy says we're
going to set high standards and high expectations, and believe that
every child can learn.
Secondly, our states believe in local control
of schools. (Applause.) That's something the federal
government needs to learn. It needs to learn to trust the
people of North Carolina when it comes to running the schools of North
Carolina. This idea of Washington making decisions on behalf
of the people of North Carolina has got to end, in order to make sure
that every child gets educated in America.
One of the things I look forward to working
with the Congress on is to explaining to those who don't quite
understand that all knowledge doesn't exist in Washington; that in
order to have excellence in our schools, we've got to trust local
people. And I mean we need to pass power out of Washington,
D.C., to empower the governors and local school boards to make the
right decisions for the children in their respective states -- because
one size does not fit all when it comes to the education of American
children. (Applause.)
And, finally, the cornerstone of reform for
North Carolina and for Texas and for other states is the willingness of
our states to measure; is to say accountability is an incredibly
important part of educational excellence.
Now, in your state of North Carolina, you
measure three through eight. In my state of Texas, we do the same
thing. And that's exactly the cornerstone of reform
necessary. Do you know why? Because if you do not
measure, you do not know whether or not children are
learning. And if you don't know, it's likely certain
children will be moved just right through the system.
It's so easy to quit on certain
children. It's so easy to quit on children whose parents may
not speak English as a first language. It's so easy to quit
on a child -- you take a look and say, this child is too hard to
educate, so we'll just move him or her through. That is
unacceptable to me, I know it's unacceptable to you and it needs to be
unacceptable to all Americans. Every child
matters. Every child can be educated. And we must
quit this business of just simply giving up on children early, before
it's too late. (Applause.)
And the structural reform necessary to make
sure that doesn't happen is to measure, is to say, ask
ourselves: can a child read at grade level, say, by the 3rd
grade. And if we find out the answer is no, then do
something about it early, before it's too late. I strongly
believe in accountability.
In the budget I submitted to the Congress --
one which one body of the House listened to pretty carefully, and one
body of the Congress listened to carefully, and the other decided,
well, they're going to listen to some of it, but they decided to
increase the size and scope of the federal government -- we put a lot
of money in for public education.
The biggest increase of any department was for
public education. We increased the size of the reading
initiative by threefold. Because I understand that reading
is the gateway to knowledge and that's nothing new -- all members of
Congress understand that -- I did want there to be a priority in the
budget for reading. They said, if the states wants to access
federal money, you should be able to do so, but make sure you have K
through 2 diagnostic tools available so that we can have meaningful
early childhood reading initiatives; make sure you understand that if
the curriculum doesn't work, that you're bold enough to change it, and
therefore, access some of the money to train teachers on curriculum
that do work; make sure that you have intensive reading academies so
that no child gets left behind when it comes to reading.
We've tripled the amount of money for states,
if they so choose to use that, because -- I know this is obvious,
unfortunately sometimes -- but it reflects reality and it reflects some
of the problems we have that if you can't read, you can't learn other
subjects. And unfortunately, too many of our children can't
read. I'm a first-things-first person. Let's get
the reading right, and I'm confident the math and science will follow
thereafter. I do know if they can't read, it's going to be
hard to master science. So there's the focus on
reading. And I know your state will take advantage of the
federal monies, if I can get it passed out of the Congress -- I think
we're going to, by the way, to make sure every child learns to read in
your great state.
Secondly, it's one thing to teach a child to
read and write, but in order to make sure education is full and
complete, we also must teach our children right from
wrong. (Applause.) We triple the amount of money
in the budget for character education programs. We should
not be afraid to teach children what's right and what's
wrong. And we should not be afraid in our society to teach
children the values which have stood the test of time: don't
lie, cheat and steal; honor thy parents; show respect.
(Applause.) Be responsible for the decisions you make in
life. And I also believe that, along those lines, we ought
not to be afraid to teach abstinence to our children. So
I've increased abstinence funding in the budget, as
well. (Applause.)
No, we increase spending. Now,
there's some hollering we didn't increase it enough and some saying too
much, and of course, imagine the President thinks it's just
right. But it's one thing to spend money, but it's another
thing to make sure the systems work, too.
As you know, particularly in your state,
there's more than just spending money to education. It is
important to get it right. And that's why I urge the Congress to hear
the message of accountability and local control.
Part of the reform package that is being
debated in the Senate and the House is to pass power out of Washington,
is the best way to put it; is to make sure the federal money that is
spent, is not so tied up that local folks can't use it to meet their
own specific needs; is to trust the local people. It's an
inherent principal of good public policy in Washington. Always
remember to trust the local people. Why? Because
government closer to the people is that which is most
responsive. The government which get far away from the
people sometimes doesn't hear the real voice, doesn't respond, may get
caught up in special interests or the folks that surround the nation's
capital.
And so we've got to trust
people. And so inherent in the plan is to say to the
Congress, work with us to pass power out of Washington. And
let's not be afraid to do so. And I think we're making good
progress on that. I think many of the members of the
Congress and the Senate understand that principle.
And I'm asking Congress, if you receive
federal money, you must develop an accountability system like North
Carolina has done. In return for taxpayers' money, to me it
makes sense to ask the question, what are the results. If
you receive Title I money in the state around the country -- in one of
our states in our country, you've got to measure. You've got
to show us. I don't believe there ought to be a national
test. I strongly resist a national test. A
national test would undermine the development of local curriculum, for
example. A national test could really mean the national
government ends up running -- begins to dictate policies for our
schools, and that's not right.
But I think it's responsible and wise and
appropriate to say that if you receive help from the federal
government, you develop an accountability system. And you
measure. And you disaggregate results, you don't lump people
into groups so we don't know. Each child
matters. You see, it is incredibly important for this
country to change our mentality about education. Instead of
asking the question, how old are you, we need to start asking the
question, what do you know.
Instead of saying, oh, you're 10 and you go
here; and you're 12, you go here; or you're 16, we'll just put you here
-- it's time for this country, all across the land, to start asking the
question, what do you know. And if you don't know what
you're supposed to know, we'll make sure you do early, before it's too
late. That's what accountability will do for our
country. It begins to change the
mentality. (Applause.)
It recognizes you can't correct problems
unless you know there is a problem. And so I hope the
members of the House and the members of the Senate do not blink when it
comes to insisting that local jurisdictions develop strong
accountability systems. It's so important. It's
so important if we want to make sure that no child gets left behind.
And by the way, in order for there to be
accountability that works, there must be a consequence for success and
a consequence for failure. There is no such thing as an accountability
system unless something happens with success and failure. I
believe we ought to reward success and I believe, after a reasonable
period of time, if a school will not teach and it will not change,
something else must happen. And we're having a big debate on
what the something else is in the nation's capital. There's
a big debate on that.
But one thing is for certain: I
will not accept a plan that accepts failure, because our children are
too important. (Applause.) One thing is for
certain: people must be given different options if their
children are in schools that simply won't adjust. It's time
for us to have strong accountability measures and local control in our
schools.
People talk about parental
involvement. All of us are for parental involvement, of
course. It will make the teachers' job so much easier when
parents get involved. But there's nothing like parental
involvement when we start posting scores on the
Internet. There's nothing like parental involvement when we
break down accountability on a child per child basis. There's nothing
like getting a mother fired up when she sees the fact that her school
may not be performing quite like she thought it was going to be.
Accountability is not only good for the children, it's good for
parents, as well.
And it turns out it's good for
schools. It's good for schools. It's good to
know. It's good to know whether a curriculum is working or
not. It's good to know whether the methodology that's being used
within the classrooms makes sense. It's good to know.
And when we start to measure, we're going to
start saying for certain, every child matters in
America. And when we start to correct -- when we start to
correct, we're going to make certain that every child is educated, and
our country is going to be better off for it. (Applause.)
There's a lot of things I want to do in
Washington. As you know, I'm committed to making sure that
once we meet our priorities, that our government always remembers who
funds the government; that it's not the federal government's money,
it's the people's money. (Applause.)
We're making progress. Oh, some
folks are kicking and screaming, but we're making some progress toward
remembering whose money it is. But we're making good
progress on education as well, and I'm grateful. I'm
grateful when a President Bush can sit down with a Senator Kennedy and
have a meaningful, real dialogue on what's right for the
country. I'm grateful for that.
One of my missions was to try to change the tone of
Washington. You see, Washington is zero-sum game up
there. There are people up there that say, we can't support
this because it means somebody wins and, therefore, somebody
loses. It means that we're not focused on the right reason,
the reason we're there as people. And we may have a
disagreement, but we've got to get rid of the zero-sum politics that
dominates the discourse in our nation's capital. We're there
to serve.
And the best way to convince people to serve
is to change the tone from one of suspicion to respect. And
as you can imagine, Senator Kennedy and I don't get along on a lot of
issues, but we get along -- I respect him as a person. I
respect his professionalism. And I respect the fact that
he's willing to sit down and see if my office and me, we can't work out
differences that may exist, and when it comes to educating
children. It's a good step in the right direction.
I think the tone in Washington is beginning to
change for the better. I know we're beginning to have a new culture of
accomplishment take hold, that, instead of everybody focusing on
process and who's saying what about who, that we're beginning to focus
on results.
I want this country to be a results-oriented
country, starting at the national level. We ought to be
focusing on results -- particularly when it comes to education of
children. And if they're good, let's praise
everybody. And if they're bad, let's praise them, but let's
fix it. So we're making progress in the nation's capital.
And, finally, I think I'm making pretty good
progress -- I hope I am -- on convincing people that it's not only
important to educate our children, it's important to welcome
faith-based and community-based programs, and to stay-after-school
programs, so that children understand that somebody loves them and
somebody cares. That is so important. (Applause.)
I think we're making pretty good progress on
the so-called faith-based initiative, that makes it clear that
government is limited. I mean, government can't make people
love one another. If it could, I'm sure that Senator Edwards
would sponsor it and I would sign it, if we could figure out how to do
that.
But the role of government is
limited. Oh, sure, we can fund and we can tax, and maybe not
tax so much. And, of course, we can keep the peace. But
what government cannot do is cause people to love one
another. What government cannot do is to understand the
great power of faith and concern and love. We can rally
faith and concern and love, we can encourage programs based upon faith,
concern and love, and we must.
But we can't make people love one
another. That comes from institutions that rely upon a
greater power, that comes from churches and synagogues and
mosques. It comes from mentoring programs based upon the
idea of some soul, some good, decent American saying, what can I do to
help make my society a better place.
I love coming outside the nation's capital,
because it gives me a chance to see Americans line the road, saluting
the institution of the presidency as I drive by. And it
reminds me every time, every trip, that the strength of this country
lies not in the halls of our government; the strength of this country
lies in the hearts and souls of the citizens of the greatest land on
the face of the earth. (Applause.)
I think we're making progress. We
understand where the power of this country lay. It lays in
the hearts and souls of Americans. It must lay in our
pocketbooks. It lays in the willingness for people to work
hard. But as importantly, it lays in the fact that we've got
citizens from all walks of life, all political parties, that are
willing to say, I want to love my neighbor. I want to make
somebody's life just a little bit better. And for those of
you who are doing that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
And thank you for your warm
welcome, and God bless. (Applause.)
END
12:20 P.M. EDT
|