[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[June 25, 1992]
[Pages 1011-1012]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion on Education Reform

June 25, 1992
    The President. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Excuse me for 
keeping you all waiting. But what we want to do here is talk about 
choice in education. I remember the GI bill working so well. It did 
nothing but make the colleges better. It's our theory that choice, at 
the level that we're going to talk about it today, can do nothing but 
make things better. But here's the firing line; here are people from the 
Governor on down right to the very most important level, Tommy, yours 
and mine, is the family level. So I've been interested in this since the 
first--one of the early meetings we had in 1989 was on school choice. I 
think it's an idea whose time has come.
    But what I wanted to do today is, just before we go out and announce 
this ``GI bill'' for lower levels of education, perhaps the most 
important levels of education, is to hear from you all. Lamar Alexander 
has been our point man. This fits beautifully into a program we call 
America 2000, which encourages innovation at the local, the family, the 
State level. What I've heard about--and since I remember talking to some 
of you all about this when I was in Milwaukee--but what I've heard about 
is the enormous success it's been. So what I wanted to do is to not put 
all of you on the spot with all this attention but literally, in an 
unstructured way, hear from the families.
    Lamar, before I turn quickly to the Governor, do you want to say 
anything?
    Secretary Alexander. Well, only this, Mr. President.
    The President. Our Secretary of Education.
    Secretary Alexander. I think Milwaukee has the opportunity to be the 
pioneer here because you have a bipartisan group in the State government 
who have used State 
funds to give middle- and low-income, or 
give low-income families more choices of 
the schools wealthier people have. Now 
you've got private business stepping up and expanding those choices to 
include religious schools. Then your ``GI bill'' for kids proposal would 
put the Federal Government into the action, and if Milwaukee wants to, 
give 
Milwaukee about $72 million. That would 
be a $1,000 scholarship for that many chil- 
dren, as long as they could spend it at any

[[Page 1012]]

school. So all of that money could go to the public schools if the 
public schools can attract the children, or the families would have the 
absolute choice to take the money, tell private schools to meet the 
needs of children.
    I think I'll stop there because I think the parents here and the 
teachers and the school principals and school leaders are the ones who 
know how this works, and I'd rather hear from them.

                    Note: The President spoke at 9:20 a.m. in the 
                        Roosevelt Room at the White House. In his 
                        remarks, he referred to Gov. Tommy Thompson of 
                        Wisconsin.