    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [June 25, 1997]
    [Pages 814-816]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Excerpt of Remarks During the Family Re-Union VI Conference in
    Nashville, Tennessee
    June 25, 1997

        The President. Thank you. Before we begin, let me just say briefly,
    of all the good ideas that Al and Tipper have ever had, this might be
    one of the two or three best. This is an amazing thing. It's something a
    President always hates to admit, but this is something I had absolutely
    nothing to do with. [Laughter] This predates our partnership even. But
    the fact that they recognized that the welfare and strength of the
    American family, upon which the whole future of the country depends, is
    directly affected by all these big issues we often talk about--the
    workplace issues, the education issues, the cultural issues--and
    determined to bring it down to family levels, and now this for the sixth
    time, I think is an astonishing and, as far as I know, unique
    contribution to America's public life.
        And so I just want to say to you, Mr. Vice President, and to Tipper
    and to everybody who has worked so hard on all these conferences, you've
    done a great thing for our country, and I'm always glad to be here. I
    look forward to this every year, and I'm just grateful. And of course,
    because this day is about parents and education, I'm especially excited
    about it.

    [At this point, the discussion began.]

        The President. Unlike the rest of you, I knew what we were about to
    hear--[laughter]--because Hillary went and visited the school and she
    came back sort of floating. When you were talking about trying to cover
    that third ``b'', I couldn't help but think that's a perfect project for
    the Vice President's reinventing Government endeavor. [Laughter]
        I don't think I can add any more to what she said, but I would like
    to fill in a blank that maybe needs to be filled in for some of you.
    When Susan was talking, I asked her if her superintendent supported what
    she was doing, and she said yes. It's just not true everywhere that the
    school district supports such things or that sometimes the districts are
    so big they're just so overwhelmed they can't even imagine how to
    achieve such things.
        And that is the purpose of the charter school movement that the Vice
    President, Secretary Riley, and I have worked so hard to support. It
    basically says you can create your own school within the public school
    system. And we have charter schools that are created in many different
    ways. Sometimes you just take over an existing building, and the
    teachers run it; sometimes a group of teachers and parents run it. But
    the point is, you're free to get out from under all those rules and
    regulations you think you have to cover yourself against.
        And no one could have imagined a public school, for example, not
    only doing the things that were just described but actually buying out
    crack houses across the street or, if the parents are really poor and
    they want to be better role models for their kids and support them
    better, creating, in effect, microenterprises. And Los Angeles now has a
    $400 million bank that the Federal Government funded to try to help make
    loans to people who couldn't get loans any other way, and we'll probably
    be able to help to finance some of those folks.
        But this is just an example of what can be done if educators and
    parents work together to try to create their own future in circumstances
    people say are hopeless. People are never in hopeless circumstances
    unless they have no power to do anything about it. All this charter
    school movement did was to give people like this remarkable woman the
    power to change their own lives.
        So I think it's a very important component of it, and in our budget,
    which is part of this balanced budget amendment, we have enough funds to
    increase by tenfold the number of charter schools over the next 5 years.
    And I hope

    [[Page 815]]

    that they'll increase by a hundredfold just by local initiatives now, as
    these stories get out. And then of course, the real answer is for more
    people to be in a situation Susan is in, where the central
    administration just lets them do it in the first place.
        Thank you. Both of you were great.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. I'm glad you took the Governor to see ``Cinderella.''
    [Laughter] I hope you got him home before midnight. [Laughter] Don
    Sundquist will write me about this before the week is out; I know it.
    [Laughter]
        Let me ask you something. You've already done something that I think
    is very important, but I would like to just reemphasize it because it
    underlies not only what you said but, in a different way, the
    presentations of everyone who has spoken before you.
        There is, I think, among some policymakers and--I know we've got Mr.
    Purcell here who might want to talk about this in a minute--and among
    the general public sometimes, like when a school bond issue is being
    voted on or something, we have an increasing divergence between the
    people who have money and the people who have children in the schools--
    or property owners. There is, I think, this underlying assumption that
    these kids that are in very difficult circumstances have parents that,
    (a) can't do better than they're doing and (b) don't want to. And both
    those things are just false.
        But they are in different circumstances than parents used to be, and
    they're going to school with different kinds of people. I just think
    that's worth hitting home, that you and your excuse-free center--I take
    it once you established your excuse-free center, you got plenty of folks
    that want to access it. And that is something--that's a message I would
    like to go out across America today. It is not true that just because
    somebody is poor or a first-generation immigrant or has been through
    some rough times in their lives, has made a mistake or two, that they do
    not want to do a good job, number one. And it is not true that they
    cannot be trained to do a good job, number two. And that's the message
    of your work, and I think we've got to get that out.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Just one other point I want to make here because I
    think it's underlying what she's said--very important. There is a common
    assumption among people who are afraid of high standards that if you
    raise the standards, the most vulnerable children will fail more and
    drop out more. What she has demonstrated is that exactly the reverse is
    the case: If you raise the standards and you do it in the right way and
    you give everybody a chance to succeed, they will be more likely to
    stay, not more likely to quit. And I really appreciate that.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. First of all, John, thank you for establishing that
    fund. I'm going to be out of work in a couple years; I might apply
    myself. [Laughter]
        I would like to emphasize one thing about this electronic dashboard.
    Now, you all haven't seen it yet, so I don't want to talk too much about
    it. But I want to emphasize--the fact that you're setting it up means
    that you believe, like all folks on this side of the stage, that all
    parents should be able to have access to technology and be taught to use
    it so they can be in communication with their children's teachers and
    principals. And I think that's a very important thing because a lot of
    school districts, in part, haven't done this because they think, ``Well,
    maybe my parents don't speak English very well; how can they learn to
    use a computer?'' And I think that's looking at it backwards.
        So I'd like for you to just emphasize that you do not think this is
    just something that middle and upper middle class school districts have
    to use.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. I'd just like to, first of all, thank you and thank
    the other education reformers in Minnesota for pointing the way on the
    college credit initiative, which did lead to a huge increase in advanced
    placement, which is now being mirrored all across the country, and on
    public school choice and on the charter schools. And I think we were--
    when I was Governor of my home State, I think we were the second State
    to adopt a statewide school choice law. And my daughter actually took
    advantage of it when she was in elementary and junior high school, to
    the great benefit of our family and our life.
        And I just want to emphasize that giving parents all these choices
    and all this power--the

    [[Page 816]]

    important thing, almost none of them will choose to go outside their
    neighborhood or assigned district, but knowing that they have the
    ability to do it changes the attitude of everybody in all the districts
    and lifts the standards everywhere. That's the key thing here.
        And the charter schools, as a practical matter--we have 500 now. We
    had 300 when I proposed our legislation with Secretary Riley to fund
    3,000 more over the next few years. What we really are trying to do is
    to create a critical mass which will turn every school into a school
    like the first two we heard about today--first three we heard about.
    That's what we're trying to do. And eventually we'll hit that critical
    mass, wherever it is, and when we do, it will be just sort of volcanic
    positive change in American education. And a lot of it will have started
    in the State of Minnesota. I'm grateful to you.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Let me say just very briefly about Secretary Riley,
    first of all, as you can hear him talk, he's from South Carolina. And
    the Vice President and I like him because he makes us sound as if we do
    not have an accent when we speak. [Laughter]
        Bill Purcell said, ``Sometimes Government should lead the way;
    sometimes Government should get out of the way.'' I agree with both
    those. Sometimes Government should support the way, and I believe that
    Dick Riley has been the best Secretary of Education our country ever had
    because he's been able to do all three things--all three things.
        To go back to what Yvonne said at the beginning, there is no telling
    how many rules and regulations that Secretary Riley has gotten rid of to
    give the decisionmaking power back to local school districts and, to
    some extent, to States and ultimately to local schools. And we feel very
    strongly we should be doing that even as we give more support for these
    reform needs. And he has really done a wonderful job, and I'm very
    grateful to him.

    Note: The President spoke at approximately 11:25 a.m. in Langford
    Auditorium at Vanderbilt University during Family Re-Union VI: Family
    and Learning. In his remarks, he referred to Susan Gingrich-Cameron,
    principal, Carson Lane Academy, Murfreesboro, TN; Gov. Don Sundquist of
    Tennessee; Bill Purcell, director, Child and Family Policy Center,
    Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies; John Doerr, partner,
    Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, Menlo Park, CA; and Yvonne Chan,
    principal, Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, San Fernando, CA.