For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 18, 2001
Remarks by the President at Central Connecticut State University
New Britain, Connecticut
Listen to the President's
Remarks
12:40 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you
all. (Applause.) Thank you very much for that
warm welcome. Governor, it's good to see
you again. On the way in he heard I was going to
get an honorary degree in law, and he said, does that make you a
lawyer? (Laughter.) I said, nope. But
it's such an honor to receive such a degree. I want to thank
the Chairman; I want to thank Dick Judd; and I want to thank all the
folks here at Central for working so hard to make our visit a great
visit.
I love your Governor. It seems like
the people of Connecticut do,
too. (Applause.) And like me, he married
well. (Laughter.) It's an honor to be here with
the First Lady of the state of Connecticut. (Applause.)
Sorry Laura is not with me
today. She's doing a great job as the First
Lady. (Applause.) I'm really proud of
her. I'm proud of the fact that she's got her priorities
straight -- her faith and her family, her country and
teachers. She's spending a lot of time -- (applause) --
she's going to spend a lot of time not only promoting literacy, but
she's going to spend a lot of time encouraging people to become
teachers; to saying to folks that are young and old alike, if you can,
get in the classroom. It makes a huge difference.
And so, for the teachers who are here, we
thank you from the bottom of our heart for being
teachers. (Applause.)
And for the young who are trying to figure out
what they're going to do when they get older, think about
teaching. It is a noble profession and it's an important
profession. (Applause.)
And to the moms and dads, always remember that
good teaching starts at home; that a mother and a dad must be a teacher
to their children. (Applause.) And it starts by remembering
the most important job you'll have, if you're fortunate enough to be a
mom or a dad, is to be a loving mom and a loving dad, to love our
children with all our heart and all our soul and all our
mind. That's what it's all about.
In order for America to fulfill its promise,
all of us must, if we're fortunate enough to be a parent, assume that
responsibility, and understand how important it is to start teaching
our children at home not only how to read and write and add and
subtract, but to teach them the meaning of love and hope and
compassion. And we can do a better job of that in our homes
in America, and we will do so. And when we do so, our
classrooms will be easier places for our teachers to teach.
I'm honored to be traveling with members of
the congressional delegation here from the state of
Connecticut. First, Jim Maloney is here. Jim and I don't
share the same party, but we share the same love for
America. He serves his country because he loves America; I
serve mine because I love America. We have got -- figured
out we can disagree in an agreeable way. It would be a lot
easier if we disagreed less often -- (laughter) -- but, nevertheless,
I'm honored he's traveling with us today. Thank you,
Jim. (Applause.)
Rob Simmons is a congressman from Connecticut
as well. He's newly-elected. They tell me he's
strong in his home district, and I know why -- because he's doing a
fabulous job in Washington. Rob, thank you very
much. (Applause.) The old, wily veteran, Chris
Shays, is with us today. (Applause.) He's
solid. I've gotten to know Chris, and I respect him and like
him a lot. He's a good, solid citizen.
And, of course, the hometown girl is here with
us. Nancy Johnson brings a lot of class to Washington,
D.C. (Applause.) She's so powerful -- she said,
Mr. President, you make sure you come to my hometown if you're coming
to Connecticut. I said, yes, ma'am. (Laughter and
applause.)
I want to thank the three Republican members
for supporting the budget I sent to the
Congress. (Applause.) I want to tell you
something about the budget. It's a budget that sets
priorities -- priorities to make sure our folks who wear the uniform of
the military get paid well. (Applause.) It's a priority that
understands we can do better with health care in America. So
we double the Medicare budget; we increase the number of folks who will
be served in community health centers; we have money for -- tax credits
for the working uninsured. It's a budget that fulfills
promises by making sure that we don't dip into the Social Security
trust in order to meet discretionary spending needs. It's a
good budget. (Applause.)
It's a budget, though, that has created some
problems in Washington because it grows discretionary spending by 4
percent. And that creates some tension, because there's a
lot of folks up there that would rather spend a lot more money than
that. But let me remind you that 4 percent growth in
discretionary spending is greater than the rate of inflation. It's
more money on an increase than a lot of people's paychecks have gone up
by. It's a pretty good chunk of money. It's real
dollars.
The trade-off is either you have priorities
and keep discretionary spending at 4 percent and give people some of
their money back, or you increase the size and scope of the federal
government. And I've made it clear I stand on the side of
the people who pay the bills in America. (Applause.) If we
grow the discretionary spending by 8 percent, it means that in nine
years the discretionary budget of America will double. And
that will crowd out private enterprise. It will make it hard
to continue to grow our economy.
I believe strongly that what we did in the
House is the right thing. And I believe strongly that we're making
good progress toward real, meaningful tax relief. The House
had a $1.6 trillion cut; the Senate is a little over $1.2 trillion; and
the summation of the message is, tax relief is on the way and it's
right for America. (Applause.)
It's the right thing for our
economy. And it's the right thing to give people their own
money back -- actually, not take it in the first place -- so that you
can make the decisions for your families. (Applause.) So you
can save and dream and build.
The tax relief plan we submitted to the
Congress says this: If you pay taxes you ought to get
relief. It says we ought not try to pick and choose
winners. The role of Washington isn't to say, you get tax
relief, and you don't get tax relief. That's not the role of
Washington. The role of Washington is to say, we're going to
be fair; everybody who pays taxes ought to get
relief. (Applause.)
We cut the rates at the bottom end and we cut
the rates at the top end. Now, I know I've heard a lot of
people talking about, well, you can't give tax relief to the people at
the top end. I say, why not? If you pay taxes you
ought to get relief. But I also want to remind people of
this fact -- that there are thousands of small businesses in America
who are unincorporated, people who pay -- who are sole proprietorships
who pay taxes at the personal income level. There's a lot of
small businesses who are creating new jobs who pay high
taxes. And when you cut the top rate in America, what we're
doing is sending this signal: the role of government is not
to create wealth; the role of government is to create an environment in
which the entrepreneur can flourish, and tax relief means more money in
the pockets of small business owners in America. (Applause.)
Ours is a tax plan that makes the code more
fair. The marriage penalty is unfair and we need to do
something about it right now. (Applause.) And do you know
what else is unfair? The death tax is unfair. It's unfair
to farmers and ranchers and small business owners. And it's
time to get rid of it. (Applause.)
Now, there's a myth in Washington that says
you can't have meaningful, real tax relief. But those are
the folks that want to increase the size and scope of the federal
government. And it really is a matter of who you
trust. And I'd rather have the American people spending the
money than the federal government. Once we meet priorities,
I trust the people with their own money. I trust the people
of Central Connecticut to make the right decisions for their
families. I want more people to have more money in their
pockets so they can save for their children's education, or so they can
build for their future.
And that's what this debate is all about, as
far as I'm concerned. And I'm not yielding. I remember who
-- (applause) -- because I understand
this: The surplus is not the government's money, the surplus
is the people's money. (Applause.)
I mentioned a while ago that one of my
priorities in the budget is education. The department that
gets the biggest increase of any department in our budget is the
Department of Education. It's important to spend money on
education -- I recognize that, and we do. And I'll talk
about some of the spending initiatives that we set out. But
I also want to remind you, money alone isn't going to solve our
problems. And we have some problems.
Just two weeks ago, we received scores from
the National Assessment of Education Progress -- it's called the
NAPE. It showed that American 4th grade students are reading
no better on average than 4th graders did eight years
ago. That's not right. The test also showed that
in some neighborhoods the scores are going up, and in some
neighborhoods the scores are going down, that there's a
gap. And if there's a gap in literacy, you can imagine what
that's going to mean in later years. And, folks, we've got
to do something about it in America. It's time to stop
talking and it's time to start doing something about
it. (Applause.)
The third International Mathematics and
Science Survey was released recently. It was a survey of 8th
grade students in 37 foreign countries and 13 American
states. And there, the news isn't very good, either.
Students in high-scoring Michigan finished well behind students in
Taiwan, Korea and Japan. American students, overall, scored
lower than students in Bulgaria. It's time to stop talking
about things, and it's time to start doing some things to make sure our
students can read and write, and add and subtract. And I
mean, early, before it's too late.
And that's the crux of the reforms I sent to
the Congress, and I'd like to discuss those with you real
quick. First, here are the principles
involved. It means our nation must set high standards and
high expectations, just like Governor Rowland has done in the state of
Connecticut. We've got to expect the best for every
child. We cannot assume that only certain children can
learn. We must have the attitude that every child in America
-- regardless of where they're raised or how they're born -- can
learn. (Applause.) Low standards will yield low
results. We've got to raise the bar and expect the best in
every classroom in America.
Secondly, we must trust local people to chart
the path for excellence for the children of America. We must
trust the governors and local school board members and principals in
schools. We must empower people at the local
level. Because one size does not fit all when it comes to
the education of the children in America. (Applause.)
And, thirdly, we've got to
measure. We've got to hold people
accountable. We've got to insist that, for example, if you
receive federal money, you measure. I don't believe the
federal government ought to design a national test; that would
undermine the local control of schools. (Applause.) But I
do believe that in return for taxpayers' money that the local folks
ought to develop accountability measures that tells us all whether or
not children are learning to read and write and add and
subtract. It is so important to have an accountability
system become the cornerstone of reform in America.
And we're making progress on this issue, like
we're making progress on the budget. The members will be
coming back from their Easter breaks and will be taking up the
education reforms. I appreciate, for example, the work of
Senator Joe Lieberman. Oh, I know that may surprise some in
Connecticut or elsewhere in America to hear me say something nice about
a man that tried to prevent me from becoming the
President. (Laughter.) But, nevertheless, like me, he's put
aside the election and he's focusing on what's right for America and
he's helping bring forth an education plan that embodies the principles
that I just described. And I appreciate his hard work and
his support on this measure. (Applause.)
And we've agreed on some core
principles. We haven't agreed a hundred percent all across
the board, but we're making good progress. For example,
we've agreed on a major consolidation of federal education programs
that will give states more flexibility and more freedom. In
other words, to put it this way, instead of having federal money with
all kinds of strings attached to it, we're having federal spending,
federal money, but trusting the local folks to spend that money that
meets the needs of each respective state. (Applause.)
We're making great progress on what
I've called a Reading First Initiative. The budget I
submitted triples the amount of money to help fight illiteracy in
schools. It says that if a state wants to, you can access
the federal money; but you develop a K-2 diagnostic tool to make sure
kindergarten teachers through 2nd grade teachers have got the ability
to discern which children need extra help. It means you've
got to develop a curriculum that works. By the way, phonics
needs to be a part of our curriculum in America. (Applause.)
And as importantly, it provides money for
intensive instruction, so when you find a child who may be lagging
behind, instead of just shuffling him or her through the system, we
say, what can we do to help you? What can we do to make sure
you're up to speed early, before it's too late? So it's an
intensive program that says that each child is important, and each
child must be assessed. And when we find failure, let's get
it addressed early, before it's too late, because we don't want one
single child left behind in America. (Applause.)
And we're making good progress on strong
accountability systems, which I just described, that says if you
receive federal money, you measure -- 3 through 8 -- so we
know. Some states posts scores on the Internet. I
know there's a lot of discussion about parental
involvement. There's nothing like getting a mom involved by
posting lousy scores on the Internet. There's nothing like saying to
somebody, the school may not be quite what you think it is, and
therefore, we're going to let you know what the results are by
comparing it from one school to the next. No results are
important.
By the way, what's important about results is
it begins to change the whole attitude in the
schools. Schools used to say -- and still do in some places
-- they ask the question, gosh, how old are you? Well, if
you're 8, you're supposed to be here; and if you're 12, we'll put you
here; and if you're 16, you belong here. And by having
accountability as the cornerstone of reform, we begin to ask the
question, what do you know. What do you know? It's a
fundamental change in questions, isn't it? What do you know,
instead of how old you are. (Applause.)
And if you don't know what you're supposed to
know, ours is a society that work hard to make sure you
do. For an accountability system to matter, there must be
consequences. We just can't accept failure when we find it;
something must happen. And we're making great progress to
provide parents more options when we discover failure; when we find the
schools won't change their teaching methodologies, for example; when
they can't meet standards -- options, such as charter schools or public
school choice or private tutoring programs.
And we're finding consensus to make sure that
the accountability system has got some teeth to it, that there is a
consequence for failure and, oh, by the way, a consequence for success,
as well.
Johnny and I have just come from B.W. Tinker
School. (Applause.) It's good to have the B.W. Tinker PTA
here. (Laughter.) Which, by the way, is an active
PTA, I'm told. But the students were seriously
under-performing eight years ago on the mastery test. Step
one is, the state at least was measuring, so we knew. You
see, you can't make that statement, the students were vastly
under-performing on the mastery test, unless there was such a thing as
the mastery test.
Now, because of two great principals, both of
whom I met -- and, by the way, it's also -- it should be clear to
everybody, I hope in America that a good principal, a great principal
will make a huge difference in the education of the
children. (Applause.)
Paul and Lauren, they use the tests to refocus
the curriculum and the teaching methodology of that
school. In other words, they use the test for what it's
designed to be for, and that is, as a way to correct problems. Tests
should not be viewed as a way to punish people; tests need to be viewed
as a way to correct problems. And they did
so. And they intensified the students' reading programs and
writing programs.
We went to a very unusual writing
program. It floored Congressman Johnson and me when we saw
the task at hand. It was a very sophisticated writing
program for a bunch of little ones. But they intensified the
effort differently, and they said we can do better. They set
the bar higher. And now, nearly two-thirds of the Tinker
students showed mastery in math. That's up 40 percent since
1993. And more than three-quarters showed mastery in
writing. That's up 36 percent.
In other words, the entrepreneurs, the
educational entrepreneurs took hold of the situation. They
used the information systems to say, something's not right; now, let's
do something about it. And they have. And B.W. Tinker
students are better off for it, and I'm glad I went to see that
school. (Applause.)
Oh, I know it's hard for some to accept
accountability as the cornerstone for reform. You'll hear
all kinds of excuses. I heard them as the governor of Texas;
I'm sure Johnny's heard them. You'll hear people say, well,
that's too much government, we can't have that kind of
government. My attitude is, the government ought to be
results-oriented, not process-oriented. The government ought
to ask the people, what are the results. And if the results
aren't good enough, we better expect a better return for taxpayers'
money. (Applause.)
And you'll hear people say, well, you can't
test because it's racist to test. Folks, let me tell you
this as plainly as I can: It's racist not to
test. It is racist not to measure. Because guess
who gets shuffled through the system -- children whose parents don't
speak English as a first language. It's so much easier to
quit on some newly-arrived to our country. It's too hard to
education this person; we'll just move him through. We'll
ask him how old they are and put them here, regardless of whether they
can read and write. Inner-city
kids -- it's so much easier to walk into a
classroom of inner-city kids and say, these kids are too hard to
educate, we'll move them through.
Those days have got to end in
America. What we need to do is to make sure not one child
gets left behind. (Applause.)
And I aim to do something about math, as
well. I've been spending a lot of time talking about
reading, but in my budget I want to point up a couple of programs that
I think make sense: $200 million for states to develop math
and science partnership programs for local education districts, as well
as higher education institutions. An opportunity to be able
to combine the two.
We've got money in our budget for loan
forgiveness for math and science graduates who teach in high-needed
schools for up to five years. And that's to defer loans from $5,000 to
$17,500 of loan forgiveness. (Applause.) And as
importantly, we increase teacher training funds, up to $2.6 billion in
the year 2002; up 15 percent from 2001. And provide states
the flexibility needed to make sure that the teacher training matches
the needs in the classrooms across the state of Connecticut, for
example.
Now, this budget is good. Now,
they'll be arguing about spending more money or not spending more
money. But the budget we submitted, coupled with the reforms
that we're asking for, will make a huge difference in making sure that
we meet a goal -- that's not a Republican goal and it's not a
Democratic goal, it's an American goal of making sure every child in
America gets educated. (Applause.)
And one other aspect of the education program
I want to share with you is also we triple the amount of money for
character education in our
classrooms. (Applause.) Education is not complete
unless we're willing to teach our children not only how to read and
write, but the difference between right and
wrong. (Applause.) We ought not to fear to teach
our children good, old-fashioned values that have stood the test of
time: Don't lie, cheat or steal; respect others; respect their
opinions.
We also have got a program that says, in the
after-school programs -- we spend all kinds of money for after-school
programs -- but I think it's so important for us to open up those
after-school programs to faith-based and community-based programs that
we'll be able to say -- (applause) -- that sends a clear message, that
if you exist because of the universal call to love a neighbor just like
you would like to be loved yourself, you're welcome on to the public
school grounds in an after-school program to teach children right from
wrong; to teach them that somebody in our society cares for them, which
really leads me to a bigger point and a bigger mission for all of
us. And that is how to usher in a period of responsibility
in America.
I think I can help with that, and I think all
of us in Washington can help with that by, first of all, working
together to change the tone in our Nation's
Capital. (Applause.) It means that we've got to
have a spirit of respect in Washington. We've got to end
this kind of needless name-calling and finger-pointing, the kind of
zero-sum politics that says if so-and-so thinks it's a good idea, I
think it's a lousy idea, because we happen to be from different
political parties.
I think we need to respect each other more in
Washington, which will, in turn, set a good signal for people on the
playgrounds of America, for example, to respect somebody with whom they
may not agree. We need a culture of results in Washington,
D.C. Less noise, less preening in front of cameras, and more
focus on getting things done on behalf of the American people.
(Applause.) And we need a spirit of
responsibility. And it starts with leadership, as well, that
each of us understand the awesome responsibilities of the jobs we
hold.
I think we're making progress in the Nation's
Capital, I truly do. Oh, I know there's occasionally somebody says
something, particularly about a nice fellow like me, that I don't like
-- (laughter) -- but I tend to ignore it and focus on the people's
business. And the people's business is what's
important. And that's why I love to travel outside of
Washington. I love to drive the roads of our country, just like I did
today, and see the hundreds of people who came to wave at the
presidential limousine. It's important for a president to see that,
and for members of Congress to be aware of that, as well, because it
reminds us about the strength of America.
And the strength of this country lies not
inside the halls of our government in Washington, D.C. or in Hartford,
Connecticut. The true strength of America lies in the hearts
and souls of the American citizens. (Applause.)
And that's why I'm so optimistic about this
country's future, because if that's the case, if the true strength of
America is in the hearts and souls of our citizens, we've got a bright
future ahead of us, because we've got great citizens in this
country. (Applause.)
This is a fabulous country. In
Washington, we've got to always understand that. That's why
tax relief is important, because it empowers people to make decisions
in their lives. That's why the faith-based initiative I've
talked about is important, because it says that in order to change
lives, we need to change hearts, and there are thousands of people who
are willing to love a neighbor, just like they'd like to be loved
themselves.
No, the great strength is when we understand
America's society changes one heart, one soul, one conscience at a
time. And that's oftentimes because some loving American --
not because of government, but because of care and compassion -- says
to a neighbor in need, what can I do to help? I hope to see mentoring
programs flourish all across America. I want any child who
wonders whether somebody loves them to have a loving adult say, I love
you; I love you with all the bottom of my heart.
No, this country is based upon great values
and great principles. But its true greatness is the fact
that we're a land full of decent, loving and compassionate and
hard-working people. And I can't tell you what a huge honor
it is to be a President of such a land.
God bless you. (Applause.)
END
1:12 P.M. EDT
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