THE PRESIDENT: Okay. I know you all are
anxious to get back to class. (Laughter.) So
please be seated. (Laughter.) Thank you for such
a warm welcome. It's great to be in the home of the Big
Blue. (Applause.) Hamilton High School. I want to
thank you all for coming. I particularly want to thank my
friend, the Governor of the great state of Ohio, Governor Taft, for
being here. (Applause.)
I want to thank Tracy Miller for being so
hospitable. (Applause.) I want to thank all who
have come to witness this historic moment. For those of you
who have studied the history of our government, you know most bills are
signed at the White House. But I decided to sign this bill
in one of the most important places in America -- a public
school. (Applause.)
We've got large challenges here in America. There's no
greater challenge than to make sure that every child -- and all of us
on this stage mean every child, not just a few children -- (applause)
-- every single child, regardless of where they live, how they're
raised, the income level of their family, every child receive a
first-class education in America. (Applause.)
And as you know, we've got another challenge, and that's to protect
America from evil ones. And I want to assure the seniors and
juniors and sophomores here at Hamilton High School that the effort
that this great country is engaged in, the effort to defend freedom and
to defend our people, the effort to rout out terror wherever it exists,
is noble and just and right, and your great country will prevail in
this effort. (Applause.)
I long for peace. But I also understand that if we do
not lead the world against terror, that your children and your
grandchildren will not grow up in a society that is as free as the
society we have today. Freedom is the precious gift that one
generation can pass to the next. It is a gift and a promise
that I intend to keep to the American children. (Applause.)
And we owe the children of America a good education. And
today begins a new era, a new time in public education in our
country. As of this hour, America's schools will be on a new
path of reform, and a new path of results.
Our schools will have higher expectations. We believe
every child can learn. Our schools will have greater
resources to help meet those goals. Parents will have more information
about the schools, and more say in how their children are
educated. From this day forward, all students will have a
better chance to learn, to excel, and to live out their dreams.
(Applause.)
I want to thank the Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, for being
here and for his leadership. (Applause.) I asked
Rod to join my administration because I wanted somebody who understood
what it meant to run a school district in Washington, D.C. I
didn't need somebody that based his knowledge on theory; I wanted
somebody who based his knowledge on experience. And Rod was
a teacher, a school board member, and the Superintendent of the Houston
Independent School District. He did a fine job there, and
he's doing a fine job in Washington. (Applause.)
Reaching this moment has not been easy, as you could tell from
Chairman Boehner's discussion. (Laughter.) But we
made it, because of the willingness of four fine leaders to do what was
right for America. We made it because proud members of the
House and the Senate, loyal to their parties, decided to set partisan
politics aside and focus on what was right for
America. (Applause.)
I want to thank George Miller. I call him Big George,
Jorge el Grande. (Laughter.) As John mentioned,
George and I aren't from the same political ideology -- except when I
met with George in Austin, I could tell he shares the same passion I
share for making sure that every child gets educated. And
he, like me and others, realize that a system that simply shuffles
children through the schools is a system that's going to leave people
behind. And so we made up our minds right then and there to
do something about it.
I appreciate so very much my friend, Judd Gregg, from the state of
New Hampshire, being here. He was my campaign manager in the
New Hampshire primary. I still invited him to come with
me. (Laughter and applause.) After here, we're going to New
Hampshire. I look forward to singing Judd's praises because
he is a solid, solid United States senator -- honest, full of
integrity, and like the others here, he buckled down to do what was
right for the children.
And then, of course, there's Senator Edward Kennedy. And
the folks at the Crawford Coffee Shop -- (laughter) -- would be
somewhat shocked when I told them I actually like the
fellow. (Laughter and applause.) He is a fabulous
United States senator. When he's against you, it's
tough. When he's with you, it is a great
experience. (Applause.)
And I'm signing this bill here because it's the home of the
Chairman, John Boehner. (Applause.) John did a
really good job. He shepherded the process. He
made sure people showed up for the meetings. He was dogged
in his determination to get this bill done. It would not
have happened without his leadership. And all four of these
members up here need to be proud of the legacy they have left
behind. This is a good bill for the American children, and
I'm proud to sign it in their presence. (Applause.)
There are other members of the Congress who are here, as well, and
I want to thank them for coming. Senator Evan Bayh from the
state of Indiana, is here. Evan, thank you for your
leadership on education reform. (Applause.) Senator Mike
DeWine of your state of Ohio, who helped author -- (applause) -- who
helped to author the safe and drug-free schools part of this
bill. Thank you for your leadership. (Applause.)
Steve Chabot of Ohio, Van Hilleary of Tennessee -- thank you both
for coming, as well. (Applause.) In that box is
the bill. I don't intend to read it
all. (Laughter.) It's not exactly light
reading. (Laughter.) But if you were to read it all, you
would find that it contains some very important principles that will
help guide our public school system for the next decades.
First principle is accountability. Every school has a
job to do. And that's to teach the basics and teach them
well. If we want to make sure no child is left behind, every
child must learn to read. And every child must learn to add
and subtract. (Applause.) So in return for
federal dollars, we are asking states to design accountability systems
to show parents and teachers whether or not children can read and write
and add and subtract in grades three through eight.
The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can
learn, we expect every child to learn, and you must show us whether or
not every child is learning. (Applause.) I read a
quote one time from a young lady in New York. She said, "I
don't ever remember taking an exam. They just kept passing
me along. I ended up dropping out in the 7th
grade. I basically felt nobody cared."
The story of children being just shuffled through the system is one
of the saddest stories of America. Let's just move them
through. It's so much easier to move a child through than
trying to figure out how to solve a child's problems. The
first step to making sure that a child is not shuffled through is to
test that child as to whether or not he or she can read and write, or
add and subtract.
The first way to solve a problem is to diagnose it. And
so, what this bill says, it says every child can learn. And
we want to know early, before it's too late, whether or not a child has
a problem in learning. I understand taking tests aren't
fun. Too bad. (Laughter.) We need to
know in America. We need to know whether or not children
have got the basic education. (Applause.)
No longer is it acceptable to hide poor performance. No
longer is it acceptable to keep results away from
parents. One of the interesting things about this bill, it
says that we're never going to give up on a school that's performing
poorly; that when we find poor performance, a school will be given time
and incentives and resources to correct their problems. A
school will be given time to try other methodologies, perhaps other
leadership, to make sure that people can succeed. If,
however, schools don't perform, if, however, given the new resources,
focused resources, they are unable to solve the problem of not
educating their children, there must be real
consequences. There must be a moment in which parents can
say, I've had enough of this school. Parents must be given
real options in the face of failure in order to make sure reform is
meaningful.
And so, therefore, this bill's second principle is, is that we
trust parents to make the right decisions for their
children. Any school that doesn't perform, any school that
cannot catch up and do its job, a parent will have these options -- a
better public school, a tutor, or a charter school. We do
not want children trapped in schools that will not change and will not
teach. (Applause.)
The third principle of this bill is that we have got to trust the
local folks on how to achieve standards, to meet the
standards. In Washington, there's some smart people there,
but the people who care most about the children in Hamilton are the
citizens of Hamilton. The people who care most about the
children in this school are the teachers and parents and school board
members. (Applause.) And therefore, schools not
only have the responsibility to improve, they now have the freedom to
improve.
The federal government will not micromanage how schools are
run. We believe strongly -- we believe strongly the best
path to education reform is to trust the local people. And
so the new role of the federal government is to set high standards,
provide resources, hold people accountable, and liberate school
districts to meet the standards. (Applause.)
I can't think of any better way to say to teachers, we trust you.
And, first of all, we've got to thank all the teachers who are
here. I thank you for
teaching. (Applause.) Yours is indeed a noble
profession. And our society is better off because you decided to
teach. And by saying we trust local folks, we're really
saying we trust you. We trust you. We want you to
have as much flexibility as possible to see to it that every child that
walks in your classroom can succeed. So thank you for what
you do. (Applause.)
And a fourth principle is that we're going to spend more money,
more resources, but they'll be directed at methods that
work. Not feel-good methods, not sound-good methods, but
methods that actually work. Particularly when it comes to
reading. We're going to spend more on our schools, and we're
going to spend it more wisely.
If we've learned anything over the last generations, money alone
doesn't make a good school. It certainly
helps. But as John mentioned, we've spent billions of
dollars with lousy results. So now it's time to spend
billions of dollars and get good results. (Applause.)
As John mentioned, too many of our kids can't read. You
know, a huge percentage of children in poverty can't read at grade
level. That's not right in America. We're going
to win the war overseas, and we need to win the war against illiteracy
here at home, as well. And so this bill -- (applause) -- so
this bill focuses on reading. It sets a grand goal for the
country. Our children will be reading by the third grade.
That's not an impossible goal. It's a goal we must meet
if we want every child to succeed. And so, therefore, we
tripled the amount of federal funding for scientifically-based early
reading programs. We've got money in there to make sure
teachers know how to teach what works. We've got money in
there to help promote proven methods of instruction.
There are no more excuses, as far as I'm concerned, about not
teaching children how to read. We know what
works. The money is now available, and it's up to each local
district to make sure it happens. It's up to you, the
citizens of Hamilton, to make sure no child is left
behind. And the federal government can spend money and we
can help set standards, and we can assist upon
accountability. But the truth of the matter is our schools
will flourish when citizens join in the noble cause of making sure no
child is left behind.
This is the end of a legislative process. Signing this
bill is the end of a long, long time of people sitting in rooms trying
to hammer out differences. It's a great symbol of what is
possible in Washington when good people come together to do what's
right. But it's just the beginning of change. And
now it's up to you, the local citizens of our great land, the
compassionate, decent citizens of America, to stand up and demand high
standards, and to demand that no child -- not one single child in
America -- is left behind.
Thank you for letting us come. May God
bless. (Applause.)