THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming.
Please be seated. Thanks for coming. I'm honored that -- I'm
honored you'd have me -- (laughter) -- here at KIPP Academy.
Susan, thanks for your hospitality. I know something about KIPP
Academy, the network. The reason I do is, when I was the Governor of
Texas, I went to a school in Houston that was called KIPP Academy.
Nobody had ever heard of it. I think Steve -- is that you back there,
Steve? No, it's not. I thought Steve was here. You look like Steve.
(Laughter.) And they said -- the principal -- and they said, come
by the school. And it was full of kids that were not supposed to be
able to learn.
You know, our state at that time was suffering what I call the soft
bigotry of low expectations. Perhaps that's happening in places in the
District, as well. You see, when you lower the bar, that's what you
get, low results. So they had labeled these kids, you know, unable to
learn, difficult to learn. So I go to this KIPP Academy. And first of
all I was overwhelmed by the spirit of the kids, the involvement of the
parents, the dedication of the teachers and the entrepreneurial spirit
of the principal.
And then I said, well, are you making any progress here at KIPP
Academy with these so-called hard to educate? And the answer was,
yes. They're the best middle school in the city of Houston. The
reason we know is because we measured. We wouldn't have known that had
we not measured.
But KIPP Academy sets high standards. It's got the absolute right
attitude for education, in my judgment. First of all, it says, every
child can learn. We refuse to condemn any child to mediocrity and
failure. We have high standards, we have high expectations, and we're
going to meet those high standards and high expectations with a
curriculum which works.
And so I want to congratulate you, Susan, and the KIPP Academy
entrepreneurs who are challenging mediocrity on a daily basis and
raising standards for those who in some communities have been condemned
to failure. Thanks for having us here, and thanks for the bright
example you've set. (Applause.)
What we're really here is to talk about how do we make sure that
the education system works for everybody. That's why the act that we
passed out of Congress, the law was called the No Child Left Behind
Act. And the reason why it was called the No Child Left Behind Act, it
set out a goal for the country that every child deserves a good
education. And it said, no child should be left behind, which means
we'd better understand whether any -- we'd better answer the
question, is every child learning.
But that wasn't the case oftentimes in America in public schools.
We didn't know whether or not we were achieving what we expected. And
so we passed this law. And the law basically said, in return for
federal dollars, the federal government will finally start asking the
question, what are the results -- that we expect to spend money. And
as a matter of fact, we set record levels of expenditure for elementary
and secondary education programs and Title I programs. That's an
obligation of the federal government. We met the obligation with the
largest budget increases in our history.
But instead of just spending money, we're starting to ask the
question, what's happening in the classrooms. And if things are good,
we want to praise the schools that are working like KIPP Academy. But
if we find things are lousy and children are being left behind, instead
of just accepting the status quo, it is now time for our society to
challenge failure. And that's what we're doing. (Applause.)
And I'm proud of Washington, D.C. (Applause.) Washington, D.C. is
willing to challenge failure and to praise success. This is not an
easy issue for some in the political process. It is hard to take on
the established order, particularly when you have to blow the whistle
on failure. Nobody likes to have the whistle blown. But for the sake
of our children, we need to be blowing whistles.
And so I appreciate very much the Mayor. Mayor Williams has stood
strong, along with the Councilmen Chavous. And I appreciate my friend,
David, being here, as well, for standing strong, and making sure that
the children -- we focus on results, not process. I want to thank
very much my friend, Rod Paige. When I hired -- hired -- I asked
Rod to join me -- I didn't hire him. (Laughter.) He gets hired by
school boards, not by presidents. (Laughter.) I was interested in
somebody that actually had been on the front lines of public school
education. He had a tough job in Texas. He was running the Houston
Independent School District, which is a heck of a lot tougher than
being President. (Laughter.) And the results in Houston were
exceptional because Rod challenged the soft bigotry of low expectations
and raised the bar. And he understands you've got to hold people
accountable in life. And so he's doing a fine job for our country.
And, Peggy, I appreciate you being here, too. Peggy is the head of
the school board. That is a tough job. That's a tough job. And I
thank you for taking it on. (Applause.)
I appreciate the members of Congress coming. Tom, I'm glad you're
here. I'm honored you're here. He's the Chairman of the House
Government Reform Committee. He is concerned about making sure D.C.
functions well, its schools function well. He's going to work closely
with the Mayor.
And Rodney Frelinghuysen is here, as well. He's the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on the District of Columbia. I'm sure he
and the Mayor spend a lot of time talking and coming up with the amount
of money the Mayor thinks is appropriate to run this important city.
My only admonition is to make sure the potholes in front of the White
House are full. (Laughter.)
But I want to thank you guys for coming here today. We're going to
talk about an extremely important initiative that will make a
difference in the lives of children here in the city. And I want to
describe them a little bit, this federal initiative that is going to
serve as a model for the rest of the country. I want my second home to
become a model of excellence so that when people look at --
(applause) -- so that when people see the educational entrepreneurial
spirit alive and well in D.C., they realize they can do the same in
their own communities.
Father McCarrick, thank you for coming, too, sir. I appreciate the
-- I appreciate your presence. I appreciate the excellence of the
Catholic school system, not only here in Washington, but around the
country. I think it's very important for our fellow citizens to see
the Catholic school system as a model of what is possible, how to
provide a high-quality education at a reasonable cost per student. And
it's an interesting -- these Catholic schools can serve not only as
an interesting go-by, but as a model, as well, for other schools in the
District.
Listen, the No Child Left Behind Act understands that there must be
accountability, and the way you achieve accountability is you measure.
And so now we're measuring a lot. We're measuring annually to
determine whether or not the children can read and write and add and
subtract. We've got to know that. The first fundamental question in
terms of achieving educational excellence is to measure and to provide
the test and to see whether or not the children have got the basics;
and if they do, recognize that the curriculum being used is working.
If they don't, recognize something has got to change.
See, the measurement is not meant to punish, it is meant to
remedy. It is meant to serve as a diagnostic tool. No one ever wants
to measure, to hold a good teacher up and say, gosh, you've got a good
heart, but you're doing a lousy job, therefore, you're a failure.
That's not the reason you measure. The reason you measure is you say
to a teacher, you've got a great heart, but you need to fine-tune what
you're doing because it's not working right now.
You've also got to measure in order to begin to effect change
that's just more -- when there's more than talk, there's just actual
-- a paradigm shift. That's what measurement does. It provides the
foundations for significant change.
Accountability is important. But accountability without
consequences means nothing. So in other words, if you measure and find
success, there needs to be -- something needs to happen, which is
praise. And parents will say, well, gosh, if that's successful, I
think we'll continue sending my child to that school. But if parents
don't have any options other than a public school system, there's no
accountability -- really no accountability. In other words, if
there's nothing else can happen, if you find failure and you're stuck,
why measure?
And so one of the things that we're going to talk about today is
making sure that any accountability system has got -- has got some
oomph to it, by trusting parents to make the right decision for their
particular child.
The District of Columbia needs to improve. Let me just put it
bluntly. (Laughter.) There are some great schools in the District and
there are some lousy schools in the District. There has been a recent
measurement to determine how the District schools do relative to other
schools around the country, and 90 -- in grades four and eight,
those were the two grades tested, the District of Columbia scored below
every single state in the Union in terms of basic skills. And that's
unacceptable. It's unacceptable to the Mayor, it's unacceptable to the
City Council, it's unacceptable to Peggy, it's unacceptable, most
importantly, to the parents. And we need to do something about it.
And the Mayor and the City Council and Peggy have started by
invigorating a -- having a vigorous charter school program. See,
charter schools say to the world, if you've got a better idea, show up
and show us whether or not you can do a better job of challenging the
status quo, if the status quo is failing. And that's what's happening
in Washington. And I want to applaud the city for being on the front
edge of the charter school initiative.
I'm going to work with Congress -- and I appreciate the members
of Congress being here to -- we need to boost our budget for charter
schools. I proposed $320 million for charter schools. I want to work
specifically with the city of Washington, D.C. The mayor and I have
-- I answered the Mayor's calls, and he occasionally answers mine.
(Laughter.) And one of the things that he likes to talk about is the
need to make sure that the charter school system here is -- receives
good federal attention. After all, the federal government has got a
lot to do with how the schools in Washington, D.C. are funded. So
we're committed to a charter school program in my administration. I
think it's one of the options that ought to be made available to
parents.
KIPP Academy is a charter school. The money follows the child, and
that makes sense. (Applause.) The problem is that oftentimes there's
not enough charter schools, in certain communities, to meet the
demand. And there is big demand here in Washington, D.C. for
alternatives other than the status quo. And so I've got an idea that I
want to share with you today about how to meet that demand. And that
is, I'm going to request $75 million from the Congress for what we call
a choice incentive fund. This will be basically scholarships for
students to be able to use the money as they see fit, public or
private. (Applause.) Obviously, private is where they're going to
require tuition.
Fifteen million of that dollars will stay in Washington.
(Applause.) It is the beginning of a school choice program funded by
the federal government for students here in Washington, D.C. The
scholarships will range up to $7,500 per student. If the private
school charges less than that, then the remainder, the difference
between $7,500 and the tuition, goes back into the pot so that more
children will be funded. We think this will affect a couple of
thousand children here in Washington, D.C. It is the beginning of an
experiment that will show whether or not private school choice makes a
difference in quality education in public schools. I happen to believe
it will.
I do believe that competition will serve its purpose, and that will
-- other schools will say, wait a minute, we're losing folks, we
better try something differently. The accountability system says we're
doing so well. We need to remember the customer. The customer happens
to be the parent and the student. And I believe the change will cause
folks to want to invigorate their own curriculum and to figure out
what's going right or wrong. It will certainly shake the system up.
And it sounds like to me the system needs to be shaken up if you're not
doing as well as you should be here in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
People say, well, gosh, if you're going to do that then there will
be no accountability. Of course, if a school receives a scholarship,
then the school needs to be held accountable, as well. The same
accountability system applies to the recipient school as it does to the
public schools in Washington. We want there to be accountability
throughout the system. Father McCarrick wouldn't mind that at all. He
runs a system that is anxious to be held accountable. And so if a
private scholarship ends up in a Catholic school, people will be held
to account. After all, it's taxpayers' money. We want to know. We
want to know whether it -- in a public school or a private school,
whether or not the children are learning.
Now, if there -- if we run out of -- if there's more applicants
than scholarships, then people will say, what's going to happen. Well,
there needs to be a lottery. I mean, there needs to be a fair way.
This isn't -- to make sure that everybody has got an equal shot. And
then, of course, the Congress is going to want to know whether or not
the program is working, just like the President will want to know. And
so, therefore, what we'll end up doing is Rod will measure and then
submit a report to the Congress on an annual basis, so that people will
begin to see firsthand whether or not what we're attempting to do in
Washington, D.C. has got the positive effect that a lot of us think it
will have.
Look, what we're trying to do is to give parents more options.
Step one was to measure; step two was to post the results so everybody
knows. They can compare school to school. Step three is to say, in
any accountability system, there has to be consequences. And the
consequences when it comes to education for failure is the parent says,
I've had it, I'm going to a different option for my particular child.
The other thing that's important is we've got to have the
philosophical notion that we cannot have a two-tiered education system
in America -- one tier for those who can afford a certain type of
school, and one tier for those who can't. And so this plan is an
attempt to say, the two-tiered deal is over with, we're starting to a
new tier. (Applause.)
And there's a demand for this, by the way, in Washington. The
Washington Scholarship Fund is an interesting idea where people came
together, I presume from the business community, and others, and put up
money to help children. There are a thousand applications last year
for a hundred slots. It's a measurement, a data point, a measurement
of demand where people are interested in doing something differently.
Virginia Walden-Ford, who I met, is the executive director of the
D.C. Parents for School Choice. She says that hundreds of calls come
in each week to her organization. Parents are wondering, do I have a
choice, is there something else I can do, I'm frustrated.
Virginia is a good person to be running the program. She -- mom
of three. Her youngest son looked like he was a -- I guess the best
way to describe it would be a train wreck. He wasn't doing well in the
public school system. He might say, the system quit on him, but he
certainly quit on the system. And Virginia pulled him up and got him
into a Catholic school. From ninth grade on, he became a student. He
was challenged. It raised his standards. He's now a United States
Marine. He's preparing to go to college. (Applause.) It's a
wonderful story about Archbishop Carroll High School. More
importantly, it's a wonderful story about a mom who never gave up.
So she's taking that experience and is now trying to help other
parents who are frustrated and other parents who are looking for
different options for a particular child. I want to thank her for that
very much. Here's what she said. She said, "Low-income parents don't
want handouts, they just want the same opportunities to send their
children to schools that meet their children's needs." And I
appreciate that comment and I appreciate you working on this.
(Applause.)
I appreciate meeting Valarie Garland today. We had a very
emotional meeting. Valarie is concerned, frustrated, worried. We had
a -- we shed a tear or two about the future. Valarie is a single
mom, which, by the way, is the toughest job in America. It's really
hard to be a single mom in our country. And then she's a single mom
who is worried about the education system on top. And her emotions
came forth, and we had a good visit about trying to provide a hopeful
future for Valarie's child. And I believe we can get the Congress to
move on this. It will make a difference in a lot of people's lives
here in Washington.
Let me summarize by saying, first of all, there's a lot of great
teachers in America. There's a lot of great teachers right here in
Washington, D.C. There's a lot of good, hardworking folks. And we
need to always keep in mind the need to praise our teachers and to
praise people on the front lines of education.
Sometimes, however, the system, the curriculum, whatever it may be,
it becomes stagnant. And wherever we find mediocrity, this society has
an obligation to challenge that. And that's what we're talking about
today. We're talking about making sure no child gets left behind by
focusing on each child. And the best way to focus on each child is to
look at results and then remember the decision-maker, who the
decision-maker is in society. The decision-maker is the mom or the
dad.
The District of Columbia is setting a bright example of what is
possible in education reform. And I'm here to praise the public school
system of Washington, D.C. and for those who are working hard to make
it better. I'm here to praise the elected officials of Washington,
D.C. for your willingness to step out and to confront failure when you
see it and to praise success when you see it, as well.
And I'm here to say to the parents of Washington, D.C.: We care
about your children. Each child matters. We believe every child can
learn. We're going to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations
in the Nation's Capital and around the country, because we know a more
hopeful America depends on this nation's capacity to educate each and
every child.
I want to thank you for coming, and may God bless America.
(Applause.)