For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
March 29, 2004
Remarks by First Lady Laura Bush in Media Availability - Orlando
Orlando, Florida
10:30 A.M. EST
MRS. BUSH: It's nice to be back here in Orlando again. I was just
here a couple of weeks ago with the President. But I'm especially glad
to be here with these school board members from across the United
States.
I know all of you in your towns and communities know that school
board members are volunteers; they run for office. Then they're held
responsible for every single thing that happens in every school
district. It's a very difficult job and I want to thank all these
school board members.
This speech gave me the opportunity to thank them for serving in
their communities because what they do is so important. And it also
gave me the chance to talk about No Child Left Behind and how important
it is to our country. It's a central piece of education reform
legislation, really the largest and most sweeping education reform
legislation from the last 50 years. And it also includes the largest
appropriation ever to school districts, elementary and secondary school
districts, on the part of the federal government.
I'm very proud of the No Child Left Behind Act. I think it's very
important and I think we're starting to see good results from it. The
funds that go to Reading First, which are the funds that school
districts can apply for to retrain teachers in all the new
research-based instruction to teach reading. We are really starting to
see some great results.
One of the great results that was printed in the newspaper last
week were the results from Texas. We started the reading initiative in
1997 in Texas, including retraining all the kindergarten, first and
second grade teachers and now we're really seeing the benefits of that
training and that focus on reading.
And, of course, we focus on reading, because if you can't read, you
can't do any of your other subjects, you can't read history, you can't
read science. Most of the kids who drop out of school in the 9th grade
or 10th grade drop out because they're so frustrated because they've
made it through the entire -- that many years of school without
learning to read. And by the time you're in high school, about --
almost 100 percent of your school work depends upon your reading
ability.
So it's fun to get to thank these school board members, to get to
be here to talk about ways we can work together to affirm our
commitment to American students.
Do we have any questions?
Q -- maybe we'll all get equal education, but maybe not. And how
can I be guaranteed that my kids won't be the ones left behind?
MRS. BUSH: Well, I think that's part of what the No Child Left
Behind Act is. And that includes testing and accountability. I don't
know if you know that this is part of the No Child Left Behind Act, but
parents can call their school, their child's school, and actually
receive the results of the testing, the accountability testing. Not --
maybe they can receive their own child's scores, but they also can know
how other children did in their school district, so they will know
whether or not their school is succeeding.
But it also requires the work of all of us, of all community
leaders, of all parents, not just the teachers, not just the principals
or the school board members, but all of us working together to make
sure our schools in our community are providing the best possible
education for every single child, and that's a very important part of
it.
Q And specifically as it relates to reform, what now compared to
what we didn't do before that's making such sweeping changes to make a
difference?
MRS. BUSH: Well, the focus on reading, the money that goes with
teaching, reading with the new science- and research-based methods that
show how -- there's a lot of new research that shows how children
actually learn to read. And teachers are being trained with this new
research so they can make sure they're teaching with the best methods
to students.
But also, they are spending more time on it, it's more of a focus.
Because of the testing, you know how your students are doing, you can
see if your child has a problem that -- if you're a teacher, if one of
your students has a problem, that means you need to spend more time
with that student or you need to adjust your teaching so that student
can learn. All of that is new.
Every state, for the first time in history, has an accountability
program that has been approved under the No Child Left Behind Act.
States devised the curriculum they want their students to learn, and
then they've devised the test that covers the curriculum they want
students to know. So there are a lot of pieces in it that I think will
make a really huge difference.
But as I said in the speech, children are in school such a short
time, it's incumbent upon all of us, upon teachers and principals and
school board members, but all of us including the media to make sure
students get the best education they can possibly get.
Q You mentioned at the tail end of your speech that this is not a
fix all.
MRS. BUSH: That's right.
Q There are some local school districts here in central Florida
that are having trouble meeting the requirements. What should they do
and what do you think needs to be done?
MRS. BUSH: One of the things, and I think this is what Secretary
Paige is talking about now, when the school was -- when the No Child
Left Behind Act was written, it was written with some flexibility in
mind, knowing that you've got a sweeping education reform bill but you
have to see how it really will translate when students and teachers and
principals start trying to put it into effect. And because it was
written that way, the Education Department was allowed to make
regulations or to change regulations. Rather than rewriting the law,
they actually had regulations that they could change to let school
districts say, this isn't working because of whatever reasons and then
to change some regulations, and that's what he is talking about.
I said it was not a one size fits all. And part of that is because
the bill is really based on the idea that local people should be the
ones who are making the decisions for their children. And because of
that, school districts and states devise their own curriculum, what
they want students to have; it's not a national curriculum. They devise
their own test over the curriculum that they want their students to
learn. And so that makes it not one size fits all, but really up to
individual states and school districts.
Q Mrs. Bush, I was wondering if you could talk about whether the
past week has been difficult at the White House, given the criticism
from Richard Clarke and the pressure from the September 11th Commission
for Condoleezza Rice to testify?
MRS. BUSH: Well, I think it's very important -- the September 11th
Commission is very important. It's not political, though, and it should
not be politicized. It's for us to find out in our whole country what
we can do to make sure it doesn't happen again, and to make sure the
people in the United States are safe and secure. And that's the goal of
my husband, I know, and his whole administration.
And if the implication was that my husband in some way does not
take his role seriously, it's just absolutely wrong.
Goodbye, everybody. Thanks. Are most of you education reporters?
Q No, parents of kids in schools.
MRS. BUSH: Good. That's a very important advocate, the parent of
kids in schools.
Q Here in Florida, as you probably know, most kids in schools did
fail in --
MRS. BUSH: There's actually not the word "fail" isn't actually in
--
Q -- and the state has -- not making any changes this coming year.
So it is very possible that most students will again not make progress
-- or whatever. Is that going to be a political problems because the
perception of that is that those schools are failing and not very good,
even though they may be -- is that going to be a political problem?
MRS. BUSH: Well, I don't see it that way. I think it's a very
important standard for parents to look at about the schools where their
children are, and to really make sure schools are doing the best they
possibly can. There's money -- there's still over $5 billion left in
the No Child Left Behind Act that has not been drawn down by states.
Now, part of the reason for that is that they have to submit
certain plans or strategies to get the grants to draw the money down,
and it takes time for school districts to do that. It also takes time
for school districts to retrain teachers, and that will be a big part
of making sure schools are adequate once they start to retrain groups
of teachers.
I know in my state, when we retrained the teachers, we did all
first grade teachers one summer, second grade teachers another summer,
kindergarten teachers another summer, so it was really a three- or
four-year process, probably four years starting from when the
legislation was first passed in the state legislature.
So I hope that people will give their school districts the benefit
of the doubt. But I also hope that people will know and demand to know
whether their school districts are making a real change, if they're
really looking at the way they're teaching, if they're really trying to
examine the way they can help children the best they possibly can. And
I think that's what will happen.
Thanks you all. Thanks a lot. Good to see you all.
10:44 A.M. EST END
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