Contact: Lindsey Kozberg (202) 401-3026

Speaker Frequently Deviates from Prepared Text

But those of you here today know that. You understand that public education concerns everyone. And for your interest and your actions, I thank you. But I did not come here today just to thank you, I also came to discuss the President's bold new plan for American education, and how you can help.

I don't think I'm surprising anyone here today by saying that our public education system is not meeting the needs of our children. It's been almost twenty years since my predecessor, Secretary T.H. Bell, created a commission to examine our public school system. That commission's final report, "A Nation at Risk," highlighted just how complacent we had become towards mediocrity and failure in our schools.

Twenty years later - where are we? Nearly 70 percent of our inner-city fourth graders are unable to read at even a basic level. Our high school seniors trail students in nearly every industrialized nation on international math tests. Nearly one-third of our college freshmen arrive at their college campuses unprepared for their college level courses and must take remedial courses instead. And this is twenty years after we started a period of 'school reform.' Are we not doing things right or are we not doing the right things?

Our biggest failure is the growing achievement gap that exists between disadvantaged and minority students and their peers. Older students who need the most help are not getting it, and young children trapped in poverty are not getting the education that would help them secure a strong future.

Our education system is simply not preparing students for the modern workforce, and you are already seeing the results. The technological advances of the past decade have created challenges for our education system, but also opportunities - not just for our schools, but for individual students as well. Yet, an increasing number of American businesses are having to bring in immigrant workers to fill high-skill jobs. In 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service granted 115,000 H-1B visas, and last year Congress voted to increase that visa cap to 195,000.

There is nothing wrong with the H-1B program, but there is something wrong when American schools are not properly training American students for these valuable jobs.

President Bush has made education his number one priority. He has spoken about the need for a new approach towards education at every opportunity. His proposal, "No Child Left Behind," will fundamentally change the way our nation approaches elementary and secondary education. And with his budget, he has provided the resources to take that plan and make it a reality. He is not just talking the talk, he is walking the walk.

In his speech last night, the President presented a budget under which the Department of Education will receive a larger increase than any other federal agency. This funding will ensure that states and schools will get the resources they need to enact real change.

The President's budget is a tremendous boost to education efforts all over America. But I know that the problems at hand require a lot more than extra funding. The federal government has provided funds before - more than $130 billion in the past three and half decades. What we need is a new approach. We must focus our education system on the fundamentals of organizational effectiveness.

• Fundamentals like high standards
• Fundamentals like annual assessment for results
• Fundamentals like accountability for results
• Fundamentals like flexibility and local controls, and ·
• Fundamentals like expanded parental choice

As those of you here today know, these are fundamentals that work for organizations, systems, businesses and individuals. And they are fundamentals that will work for our schools.

Setting high standards is the first step. When we expect more from our children, we will get more. Children know when they are being sold short. The President calls this the "soft bigotry of low expectations." We can't help our children by asking less of them, but we can help them by expecting more.

Setting standards is important, but it does us no good if we aren't making sure that our kids are meeting them. To ensure that children are meeting high standards, we must test them - every child, every year.

Testing is an aspect of the President's plan that has generated fear and anxiety in some quarters, but testing can be a powerful and effective tool for teachers. Tests that are aligned with standards, objectives and curriculum - and at their very best with teacher training - are our best tool for identifying where students and schools are succeeding. Tests are also the best way for us to identify failing schools and failing students. When we can see them - and we cannot be afraid to see them - we can give them the resources they need to succeed.

We have a responsibility to make sure that schools get the resources they need. But schools in turn have a responsibility to make sure kids are learning. And when schools aren't teaching children, they will be held accountable.

Those of you in the business community have a unique and firsthand understanding for what we are trying to do in our schools. For you, "accountability" isn't some new idea for education. "Accountability" is a principle you must use every day when you are asked to demonstrate results.

When schools are failing to teach their students, we must intervene. We cannot allow children to remain in perpetually broken schools. Help the schools - yes. Improve them through rigorous reforms - yes. But give options to parents and kids that never get options. We may or may not agree on what those options ought to be, but we should all agree that these parents should get a viable option for their child to get the help they need.

Greater parental choice and flexibility are crucial to the President's plan. We are going to demand more from our schools. We will reward success. And we will sanction failure. But we will not tell schools how dollars must be spent, or how decisions must be made.

Dollars and decisions belong in our communities and classrooms. Just as effective business give resources and flexibility to those workers who are closest to the action of their enterprises, we want to assist and take regulatory burdens away from those who are responsible for teaching children.

Another way we can make things easier for teachers is by incorporating new technology into our classrooms. We have discussed the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers, but there is also a technology gap between these students. We must do more to make sure that the latest technology is available to every American student, regardless of where they live or what school they attend.

The President is committed to making sure that the federal government helps in this effort. The President's plan would streamline the numerous federal technology programs into a performance-based technology grant program. This simplified structure will ensure that more technology dollars get into our classrooms. When schools are free of the administrative burdens that they must currently endure to receive technology funding, they can spend more time focusing on how to best use that technology funding.

Technology can be a powerful tool to approve academic achievement. But we must not use technology as a crutch - or a lack of technology as an excuse. Technology must be integrated into our classrooms in ways that will help increase student achievement. When technology is properly incorporated into our classrooms, more students will develop the skills it takes to succeed in the modern workforce. And American companies will finally be able to look within our own nation to find the high-tech employees they need.

I know that you are ready and willing to do what it takes to improve education. And we will need your help. The President's plan may have the weight of the federal government behind it, but it is not the federal government that will make this plan succeed. It will be the combined efforts of the federal and local governments, the public and private sector, and parents, teachers and students.

If you agree that the time has come for a new approach to education, then I urge you to involve yourself in this debate. Your words can make a powerful impression, and I ask you to use them in the service of our children.

An Education Summit such as this one is a valuable opportunity to talk about education, but we must do more than talk about education at conferences and summits. We must keep talking about it back home, and keep working towards the day when 'No Child Left Behind' is no longer a plan - but a reality.

Thank you.