For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 4, 2003
President's Radio Address
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. One year ago this month, our country
set a bold new course in public education. With the No Child Left
Behind Act, America began a promising era in our public schools, an era
of local control, high standards, and accountability that will produce
better results for America's students.
Under the new law, key choices about education spending will be
made at the local level by parents and teachers and principals who know
the children best. Government cannot and must not try to run the
nation's schools from Washington, D.C.
Yet, the federal government has an important role. We are
providing far more money than ever before to help states and local
school districts, more than $22 billion in this school year alone.
Over the last two years, we have increased federal spending by 40
percent and, in return, we are insisting that schools use that money
wisely. States must set new and higher goals for every student, to
ensure that students are learning the basics of reading and math. The
law also requires that schools regularly test students, share the
results with parents and show how the results in each school compare
with others.
My budget provides more than enough money for states to test every
student, every year, in grades three through eight. Testing is the
only way to know which students are learning and which students need
extra help so we can give them help before they fall further behind.
For parents with children in persistently failing schools, the law
provides hopeful options.
Those parents can choose to send their children to better public
schools or receive funding to pay for after-school tutoring or other
academic help. No parent will have to settle year after year for
schools that do not teach and will not change. Instead of getting
excuses, parents will now get choices.
Across America, states and school districts are working hard to
implement these reforms. They are developing accountability plans and
beginning innovative tutoring plans. The path to real reform and
better results is not easy, but it is essential.
The priorities of last year's reforms will also be reflected in the
budget I will submit to Congress this year. Too many students and
lower income families fall behind early, resulting in a terrible gap in
test scores between these students and their more fortunate peers. To
help close this achievement gap, I will ask Congress to approve an
additional $1 billion, a total of $12.3 billion, for the Title I
program in the 2004 budget. This would be the highest funding level
ever for Title I, which serves our neediest students.
Our reforms will not be complete until every child in America has
an equal chance to succeed in school and rise in the world. For every
child, education begins with strong reading skills. With the Reading
First program, we have set a national goal to make sure that every
child in America is reading by the third grade. To move toward that
goal, I will request more than $1.1 billion for federal reading
programs in next year's budget, an increase of $75 million over last
year's budget request. This investment will go only to support
programs with proven results in teaching children to read.
The No Child Left Behind Act was a victory of bipartisan
cooperation. By this law, we affirmed our basic faith in the wisdom of
parents and communities, and our fundamental belief in the promise of
every child. The work of reform is well begun and we are determined to
continue that effort until every school in America is a place of
learning and achievement.
Thank you for listening.
END
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