THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) ______________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release September 3, 1997 MR. LOCKHART: Good morning, everybody. I'm out here a little bit early today. I just wanted to let you know the President, at I think about 11:15 a.m., will leave -- he's going to do a drop-by at the local Oak Bluffs School. It's K through 8.
The school system here, the students come tomorrow, and they've been doing a two-day orientation, sort of, I think, district-wide with all of the teachers. And the head of this particular school wrote a letter to the President inviting him to come by and talk to the teachers. He's going to do that this morning. The pool will cover it.
He'll talk a little bit, I think, about how great it's been in Martha's Vineyard, and then talk for a few minutes about the need for national standards in education. I think some of the stuff will be similar to what you've heard in the radio address, but he'll just be talking about how important it is to demand high standards and testing, challenging students to achieve has worked; probably cite an event that Secretary of Education Riley did yesterday in Philadelphia where they're at the end of a three-year program where they've increased the academic achievement through testing and standards; and talk a little bit about how this should not be a partisan issue and there are some efforts underway to offer an amendment to block the Department of Education spending on developing a test which would certainly set back any effort to move towards national standards in testing.
Anyway, he'll do that and then go back, and I don't really yet have a sense of what the rest of the day looks like.
Q Will we hear those remarks in here live?
MR. LOCKHART: Let me see if we can work that out. I, frankly, didn't think of it until about two minutes ago when somebody else asked me that. If not, we'll obviously get a transcript back as soon as we can, but we'll try to do that.
Q Are we likely to see some movement on that next week when the President gets back?
MR. LOCKHART: I think it's likely that there will be some movement in the House this week. The particular appropriations bill that Congressman Goodling has been talking about attaching an amendment to I believe may come up as early as tomorrow.
Q Joe, would the President veto that bill if the Goodling amendment survived in it?
MR. LOCKHART: I don't think we've moved to that point yet. As you know, the Secretary of Education has suggested -- has recommended a veto on this particular issue. We have sent up a SAP, I believe it was late last night or early this morning, which I'll try to get a copy as soon as I have it where within that SAP is a senior advisors' recommendation to veto. But I think we're still hoping that we can make the case that standards is one of the most important challenges facing our nation and our educational system, and not have to invoke a presidential veto.
Q Is he going to, at all, touch on the issue the Education Department has had to quit accepting applications for student loans? Goodling has also criticized --
MR. LOCKHART: Yes -- I don't expect that to come up today, no.
Q What's the latest for the administration to say about that issue?
MR. LOCKHART: I don't really have much to add beyond what I've seen the spokesman at the Department of Education on the backlog. I don't have any more current information.
Q Joe, Goodling's argument is that there are already enough tests and that we already know what's wrong with the education system and that passing this is like using a speedometer to make a faster car, or whatever. But how does the administration respond to that argument?
MR. LOCKHART: We respectfully disagree with Congressman Goodling. And I think if you look at the pilot program that the Philadelphia School Board used, which they announced yesterday, they showed an increase of five percentage points in the proportion of students at a basic level or higher in nearly all grades and subjects, a reading increase of more than five percentage points in proportion of students achieving at the basic, proficient and advanced level, and in science an increase of nearly nine points among 4th graders. And I think those sorts of programs make the case for demanding high standards among students all across the country.
Q How much money is involved in this, Joe?
MR. LOCKHART: As far as what the Department of Education -- I don't have a figure. I'll track down a figure. And I don't think it's a huge appropriation, but I think what the attempt by some who disagree with us on this are hoping to shut the whole program down by forbidding spending any money at all on testing.
Q It's a rolling appropriation; it starts at a relatively small amount, and then --
MR. LOCKHART: I think one of the things that we have talked about is sending up legislation to have the NAGB Board -- the National Assessment Governing Board -- actually administer work towards developing and administering these tests to make sure that everyone understands this is nonpartisan. But that's legislation that hasn't been introduced or passed, and in effect, what -- defunding or barring funding at the Department of Education would basically bring this effort to a halt. And we just find that to be unacceptable.
Q One of the things Goodling has said is that it's not a partisan issue, but he says the opposition is powerful because conservatives are opposed to anything that has national in it, and liberals are opposing to anything that has testing in it; so he says he has a lot of support, not just partisan support.
MR. LOCKHART: Well, that's his political assessment. He's well within his rights to make that political assessment. We believe that there's a national consensus for higher standards and achieving higher educational standards through this effort and through this program, and we think this is the way it should go.
Q Joe, if there's a consensus, it would appear a number of the people you have invited in to talk about racial issues are not part of that consensus. They told us when they came a few weeks ago that they felt that these tests were arguably racially discriminatory. Is the administration doing anything to address their concerns?
MR. LOCKHART: I don't have any specific information on any specific actions we've taken. We certainly have been listening and consulting widely on this, but I think when I talk about a consensus I think if you look at some of the surveys that have been done by independent organizations, people think this will work. And we believe that it's really the important -- if not the most important challenge, one of the most important challenges we face as we move toward the 21st century and developing a world-class education system.
Q How do you come to the conclusion that there is a national consensus when, in the seven months since the President unveiled this program, only six states have embraced it?
MR. LOCKHART: This is an ongoing process, and we have six states, we have many large school districts. You're looking at more than 20 percent of -- covering more than 20 percent of the students, and we're continuing to work on this effort. But I think the point we're making here now is that this is not the point where we should take a step back and shut down this program, which is, I think, what the amendment that has been discussed, being offered, would do, by defunding it at the Department of Education.
Q Are you counting on success in Congress this week?
MR. LOCKHART: Well, I think Congress has just come back from a long recess, so we're still assessing where we are.
Q So this is their issue; do you think that you will prevail?
MR. LOCKHART: I think we'll be in a better position to know in the coming days, and it is an important issue and it's one of the reasons we think we're going to take another opportunity today to talk about it.
Q Is Massachusetts one of the six states?
MR. LOCKHART: Yes, Massachusetts was one of the first states.
Q So it's like preaching to the choir.
MR. LOCKHART: It's one of the states, and as you know, as the President often does, he highlights the best practices around the country. And he's happy to be here in Massachusetts, which is one of the first states to sign on.
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