[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[March 22, 1991]
[Pages 299-302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Swearing-In Ceremony for Lamar Alexander as Secretary of 
Education
March 22, 1991

    The President. Thank you all. Thank you, Bill Carl. It's a pleasure 
to be here to witness the swearing-in of our new Secretary of Education, 
Governor Lamar Alexander. To the members of the Cabinet--and I see so 
many here; distinguished Members of the United States Congress--and I 
see many here; to former Secretaries--I'm told--don't spot them right 
now--that Bill Brock and Mel Laird were here.
    Let me just welcome all of you--those from the White House. I'd like 
to, at the outset of this, pay my respects to the man who is going to do 
the honors, Judge John Minor Wisdom, one of the most distinguished 
jurists in the United States, who is with us here today.
    For a challenge of this magnitude, it is my very good fortune to be 
able to call on a man with Lamar Alexander's considerable experience. He 
comes to this task the son of teachers. He's served as a very valued 
member of our Education Policy Advisory Committee, and most recently 
he's served the students of his home State as president of the 
University of Tennessee. Five years ago, as chairman of the National 
Governors' Association, he piloted the 50-State education survey, ``Time 
for Results,'' a report that put us on the path to the six national 
education goals that guide our efforts from now to the year 2000.
    As a public servant, educator, and author, Lamar Alexander is a true 
renaissance man--a man with great common sense, who knows what works. 
And he's also one of Tennessee's leading philosophers. He's got a saying 
you've probably already heard: ``Today a rooster. Tomorrow a feather 
duster.'' [Laughter]
    Our setting today in this great Air and Space Museum is a fitting 
site for this ceremony. It reminds us of another time when this nation 
set for itself a national goal, that of landing a man on the moon. And 
we did it.
    Lamar Alexander understands that real reform, real restructuring of 
American education can only take place at the State and local level. And 
that's one of the key reasons that I've asked him to become Secretary 
Alexander. He knows the key to success is to make certain education 
reform is national, not Federal. Nationally, we have established goals. 
We're setting standards, establishing priorities, and in the process, 
we're raising expectations. We must bring all levels of government and 
all Americans together--parents, teachers, students, civic and business 
leaders, and all interested citizens--to achieve our goals.
    On the Federal level, we can serve as a catalyst for change. We can 
point the way forward, contribute ideas, and help States and schools 
meet higher, better standards.
    The Department of Education, through research and development, can 
help identify practical ways to improve teaching and learning for all 
students. We also can create incentives for change, and we can start 
with freedom of choice.
    I know this idea has generated its share of controversy. But it 
isn't radical; it's common sense. It rests on a principle central to 
democratic society: the idea that individuals are capable of making wise 
decisions for themselves. In education, the concept of choice recognizes 
that parents are the real

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experts on what's best for their kids.
    Often, parents with means--families in the mid-to-upper income 
brackets--already have choice. They can send their children to private 
schools or move to districts with the strongest public schools. Poor 
parents don't have these choices. So, let's be clear about who can 
benefit the most from greater freedom of choice. It's poor families who 
will benefit most from a healthy competition in our schools.
    With Lamar as the sparkplug, we're going to move forward towards our 
national goals on many fronts and reiterate our commitment to 
educational excellence. We're going to make our schools better and more 
accountable, and we're going to reward excellence in our teachers. And 
we're going to challenge our children to learn. And we're going to 
encourage all American adults to recognize that learning is a lifelong 
process.
    After all, learning doesn't happen only in school. Lamar likes to 
talk about something he calls the 91-percent factor: the fact that by 
the time the average American youth reaches the age of 18, he's spent 9 
percent of his time in the classroom and 91 percent outside of it. We 
must work as a society to support the kind of values, culture--the vital 
sense of community and, yes, citizenship--that gives real meaning to all 
that our children learn.
    I know some people question whether we can meet the ambitious goals 
we've set for ourselves, whether we can lower the drop-out rate or rise 
to first rank worldwide in math and science. Well, I'm convinced that we 
can. Think about this: the graduating class of the year 2000 is a third-
grader today. Think about what it means to be an 8-year-old, about the 
world of learning that lies ahead. Let's help those kids learn all they 
can on the journey from 8 to 18, and then let's see where they take us 
in the next century.
    Mr. Secretary, first let me say that this, as far as I'm concerned, 
is going to be a team effort for all of our Cabinet Departments. I think 
every Cabinet Secretary has some role to play in helping you meet these 
educational goals. And with that in mind, I would like to ask the 
members of our Cabinet that are here to stand up--and the former members 
I do see now, Mel and Bill Brock and Bill Coleman over here--but please 
stand up, we're going to make you committed to this goal we're 
undertaking right now. [Laughter]
    Let me also say to you and to all the dedicated people at this 
Department, Mr. Secretary: There is no single issue that determines more 
about America, about our dreams and our destiny, than education. 
America's future walks through the doors of our schools every single 
day. For the sake of that future, America can settle for nothing short 
of excellence in our schools. Because of our commitment to education, 
we're creating a great team at the Education Department. Just this 
morning I announced my intention to nominate David Kearns, chairman of 
Xerox, to become the Deputy Secretary of Education. David, would you 
please stand up?
    He may be coming out of the loftiest echelons of the business world, 
but no American business leader has more outstanding credentials or a 
deeper commitment to improve education for all our children. And then, 
I've asked Ted Sanders, the former president of the country's chief 
State school officers and who has served so ably as Acting Secretary, a 
man to whom I will always be grateful, to take on the new dual 
responsibility of Chief Financial Officer, Deputy Under Secretary for 
Planning, Budget and Evaluation, a key post. Ted, we're delighted. Would 
you please stand for us?
    And with the help and support of the dedicated professionals at the 
Department, and there are so many--many with us here today. And I want 
to thank each and every one of you. I am confident now that this is a 
team equal to the task before us.
    Lamar and David were over yesterday and they presented me a 
fantastic proposal--how we can go about meeting these national education 
goals. I'm excited about it. And I told them that which I want to say 
once again but this time to all the employees, those who are working at 
the Department of Education: This is priority. And I am committed as 
President to working with you and to supporting you in achieving these 
national goals.

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    I thank you all for being here for this wonderful ceremony. And now 
it is with great pleasure that I witness the swearing-in of Secretary 
Lamar Alexander. Thank you all very much.

[At this point, Secretary Alexander was sworn in.]

    Secretary Alexander. Mr. President and Barbara, distinguished 
Members of the Congress, it's very difficult to put anyone else ahead of 
Judge Wisdom, as you can tell. I want to thank President Bush for giving 
me one of the most exciting opportunities in America: helping him be the 
Education President.
    And I want to thank Barbara Bush for keeping up front the importance 
of literacy for every American. And I want to thank Judge Wisdom who, 
for the last 40 years or so, has been one of the most vigorous members 
of the Federal judiciary and one of the most adventuresome. On one 
evening, he brought the entire Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals down to 
Your Father's Mustache to hear our washboard band play when I was his 
law clerk.
    I want to thank the President's own Marine Band. I've never heard 
the Marine Band play ``Rocky Top'' before, and I'm glad--[laughter]--to 
hear that. And the children from Amidon and the young men and women from 
Cardozo, thank you for being here today.
    And Honey and Drew and Leslee and Kathryn and Will, thank you for 
putting up with a notorious father and one who has required you to move 
three times in the last 9 months. For our friends, who have come on 
short notice from a lot of different places, thank you. To members of 
the Cabinet, I'm the junior member of the team and looking forward to 
being a part of it. To Members of the United States Senate for taking 
such an interest in me and then after a while--[laughter]--confirming me 
unanimously, I thank you for that. And for the members of the Tennessee 
delegation and other Members of the Congress who are here.
    And, Mr. President, you're a terrific recruiter. To have a chance to 
work with David Kearns and Ted Sanders as a part of the President's 
education team is something I'm very much looking forward to.
    I also want to thank my sister Jane and her husband, Bill Carl, for 
coming from Dallas. Their sons, Jeremy and David, our nephews, sent me 
this message: ``Tell Uncle Lamar congratulations, and we hope this 
doesn't mean more homework.'' [Laughter] That made me think of how Jane 
and I grew up in Maryville, Tennessee, with our sister Ann. We were 
ready to learn because our mother took care of herself when she was 
pregnant. She read to us--she and our father read ``Winnie the Pooh'' 
and ``The Little Engine that Could'' and ``The Adventures of Tom 
Sawyer'' even before we went to school.
    We had more preschool education than anybody in this room because 
our mother had the town's only preschool education program in a 
converted garage in her backyard, and she had nowhere else to put us, 
and so we went there. We knew what we were expected to learn in school 
and we learned it because our teachers expected us to. And they helped 
us, as did our parents.
    The most dangerous thing going in Maryville when we were growing up 
was football, and drugs were something you took when you were sick. 
There was always some adult hovering around to make sure we got a pat on 
the back when we did something right, and that we didn't get away with 
much. When we got in trouble at school, we got in trouble at home. That 
was the way we grew up.
    Jeremy and David, my nephews, and our children are coming along in a 
very different world. All over America people are trying to adjust to 
that world. That adjustment is what we call our education. And because 
it is not easy, it is at the top of our concerns.
    On March 6th, President Bush talked to Congress and the American 
people about reaching our potential, that we should make this country 
all that it should be. I like to look at things that way, too--not as 
one big problem but as one big opportunity. I want to help President 
Bush be the Education President, to help America do as well at home as 
it has done overseas. Almost everything we do at home has education at 
the bottom of it.

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    My nephews, David and Jeremy, may not think this is such good news 
because it may mean for them higher standards, tougher tests, and 
probably more homework. They may find themselves and certainly their 
children going to schools that are radically different learning systems 
than what we see today, as different from what they know today as this 
lunar module is from the propeller airplane.
    This is the most visited museum in the world. And it is that because 
it stands as a symbol of what can happen when we unleash America's 
creative genius. We need to unleash that creative genius to create the 
best schools in the world.
    Jeremy and David's parents, Jane and Bill, will be doing what the 
President just said. They'll be going back to school, too, because 
whatever they learned growing up isn't enough to live and work in the 
world the way it is today. And in downtown Dallas and in Maryville and 
everywhere, communities will be finding that the school can't do it all, 
or even most--help a child grow up the way we had the chance to grow up.
    Doing well at home is as important as doing well overseas and will 
be infinitely more complex because the army the President has to 
mobilize is every American.
    An enterprising reporter found our mother right after I was 
nominated. And she told him, ``When Lamar grew up, I was teaching and 
Andy was on the school board. And at the dinner table we talked about 
better schools.'' We need that kind of talk going on at every dinner 
table in America.
    Our Education President can mobilize that army, can get that kind of 
talk going and I hope I can be a sparkplug for change to help him do 
that.
    Thank you.

                    Note: The President spoke at 9:40 a.m. at the 
                        National Air and Space Museum. In the ceremony, 
                        the following persons were referred to: William 
                        J. Carl III, pastor of the First Presbyterian 
                        Church in Dallas, TX, who gave the invocation 
                        and introduced the President; Mr. Carl's wife, 
                        Jane, sister of Secretary Alexander, and their 
                        sons, Jeremy and David; former Secretary of 
                        Labor William E. Brock III; former Secretary of 
                        Defense Melvin R. Laird; John Minor Wisdom, 
                        senior circuit judge of the U.S. Court of 
                        Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; former Secretary 
                        of Transportation William T. Coleman, Jr.; David 
                        T. Kearns, nominee for Deputy Secretary of 
                        Education; Ted Sanders, Under Secretary of 
                        Education; Secretary Alexander's wife, Honey, 
                        and children, Andrew, Leslee, Kathryn, and 
                        William; and the Secretary's parents, Flo and 
                        Andrew Alexander.