For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 9, 2001
Remarks by the President at Nalle Elementary School
Southeast Washington, D.C.
10:21 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning,
everybody. How are you? Thanks for letting me
come by to say hello. Shall we get started?
MS. DOBBINS: Boys and girls, we
have a very special guest this morning. We are honored this
morning to have the President of the United States here with us in our
classroom, and he will be reading a story to us this
morning. He's here on his visit to promote reading.
THE PRESIDENT: I am here to promote
reading. Thanks for letting me come by and
read. First, I want to introduce the Secretary of Education,
Dr. Rod Paige. He's a friend of mine -- I knew Rod in Texas,
he and I were from Texas. And I asked him to come up and
become the Secretary of Education because he did such a fine job of
being the superintendent of schools in Houston.
And we're all speaking about superintendents,
we've got the superintendent of the Washington, D.C. schools with us,
Dr. Paul Vance.
DR. VANCE: Good morning, boys and
girls.
STUDENTS: Good morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for having us here at
Nalle. I'm so glad to see your principal, Ms.
Dobbins. She's a pretty special person, isn't she?
One of the things that happens when you get
over 50 -- and I'm over 50 -- is you have trouble
seeing. (Laughter.) So in order for me to read
this book called "More Than Anything Else," I had to put on my
glasses.
This is also Black History
Month. And what's important about Black History Month is to
read about different heroes who have made a difference in making
history, and to realize there are fantastic role models. So
this is a combination of history, plus reading. So thanks
for letting me come by.
One reason I like to highlight reading is,
reading is the beginnings of the ability to be a good
student. And if you can't read, it's going to be hard to
realize dreams, it's going to be hard to go to college. So
when your teachers say, read -- you ought to listen to
her. Also, I hope you read more than you watch TV -- that's
pretty hard. Does anybody do that, read more than they watch
TV? (Laughter.) It's good to read more than you
watch TV, that's how you learn and it's very important to practice.
Are you ready to go?
STUDENTS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Has anybody read
this book yet?
STUDENTS: No.
(The President reads to the class.)
*
* * * *
THE PRESIDENT: And that's the end
of the story. (Applause.) And the story is about
a young fellow who grew up very poor and worked really hard. But he
knew something. He knew if he learned to read, he could
change his life. I think it's a great story, don't you?
STUDENTS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: It's a story that
teaches the power of reading and what it means. So that's
what's important, to be able to read, because you can read somebody
else's experiences too. And you can share. And
this is the story of an unbelievable young man who became a great
reader and a great leader.
So thanks for having me
come. Anybody got any questions?
MS. TENTMAN: Mr. President, we have
a tradition here in our classroom that whenever we read a book, we have
a reading chain here in our classroom. In each book we write
the title and the author and we'd be honored if you would join us in
our reading chain by adding that book to our reading chain.
THE PRESIDENT: I will do
that. Thanks for letting me do that. Good to see
everybody.
MS. TENTMAN: Thank
you. And we'll add that.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm going to leave
this here for you, too, as a gift.
MS. TENTMAN: Okay. Thank
you so much.
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, I appreciate
it.
MS. TENTMAN: And we will add this,
boys and girls, to the end of our chain, and the President has signed
it, more than anything else.
THE PRESIDENT: How about
that? It's pretty nice, isn't it? Thanks for
having me come. One of the reasons I came is, I think it's
important for the Capital to stay focused on public education and
public education reforms. One of the key ingredients in our
package we sent up to the Congress is a reading
initiative. I'm so impressed about what Ms. Dobbins is doing
at this school, what the superintendent is insisting upon,
accountability based reading system.
And she told me that they've got a
collaborative effort here with the National Institute of Health, which
has developed curriculum based upon the science of
reading. And it's impressive that the school and the
District are willing to set high standards and ask the fundamental
question, what works in education, are willing to implement curriculum
that works, and then are willing to be held accountable for
implementing the curriculum.
And thank you for letting me
come. I appreciate you coming.
I'll be glad to answer a few questions.
Q Mr. President, would
you be interested in establishing a panel along the vein of what
President Johnson did, to look into racial profiling or, perhaps,
considering an executive order banning racial profiling?
THE PRESIDENT: I'll look the all
opportunities, starting with the gathering of information, where the
federal government can help jurisdictions, gather information, compile
information to get the facts on the table to make sure that people are
treated fairly in the justice system.
Q Mr. President, do you
have any -- of agreeing to the Pentagon's request that you increase
your defense spending, your defense budget, or give a supplemental for
2000?
THE PRESIDENT: I've sent the
message that I think it's very important for us to not have an early
supplemental. Secondly, Secretary Rumsfeld is beginning a
review of the defense, a top to bottom review of what's happening in
today's military, reviewing missions, reviewing opportunities for
change, beginning to look at the transformation policy. And
I will look forward to finding out what his report says.
I will be traveling the country next week,
talking about some increases in the defense spending, along the lines
of what I promised during the course of the campaign, starting with
better pay for the men and women who wear the uniform.
Q But they're saying
it's going to affect military readiness.
THE PRESIDENT: What's going to
affect military --
Q They're saying that
they need more money -- excuse me -- they're not going to be able to be
prepared for --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's part of
the review process. I hear -- there are a lot of voices on a
lot of subjects regarding the budget. We have yet to submit
our budget; I will later on. But I have said during the
campaign, I have said since I've been sworn in, it's important for us
to do a top to bottom review, to review all missions, spending
priorities, and that's exactly what the Secretary of Defense is going
to do. And before people jump to conclusions, I think it's
important to get that review finished.
Q What about the
Justice Department? Are you asking for specific cuts in --
THE PRESIDENT: We're looking at all
-- we've asked our Secretaries on all Cabinets to take a review of
their full budgets, and we'll submit a budget here later on.
Q Mr. President, on the
subject of the AIDS Office, there are still some misunderstanding about
whether there is going to be an AIDS czar, like --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there's going
to be a focus on AIDS, and people can apply any title they
want. But there's going to be a person in my office who has
got the responsibility of coordinating the AIDS policy throughout the
federal government.
Q What did you say to
Mr. Arafat?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I had a good
talk with Mr. Arafat. I also had talks with other leaders
throughout the region, and I urged calm. I said it was very
important to give the newly elected leader of Israel a chance, a chance
to form a government, and a chance to do what he said he wanted to do,
which is to promote the peace in the region. And I certainly
hope that people recognize that change does not necessarily mean that
the peace process won't go forward.
I think we ought to take Mr. Sharon for his
word, and that is he wants to promote peace in the Middle
East. I look forward to watching him put a government
together, and then fulfilling what he said he would do.
Q Are you concerned
about the violence yesterday, the bombings?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm concerned about
all kinds of violence. But I firmly believe that the best
policy is to encourage leaders to just remain resolute in their
willingness to promote the peace and give the Sharon government a
chance to form a government, and then to be able to do what he said he
wanted to do, which is to promote peace in the Middle East.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
10:37
A.M. EST
|