    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [October 28, 1997]
    [Pages 1439-1442]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at Oscar Mayer Elementary School in Chicago
    October 28, 1997

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Evaline, and thank you, Mary. Thank
    you, Maggie Sullivan. Mr. Blitstein, thank you for welcoming me here.

    [[Page 1440]]

        I have been officially welcomed. [Laughter] I have my Oscar Mayer
    wiener here. When Hillary was teaching me about Chicago so long ago, we
    learned to sing the Oscar Mayer song. [Laughter]
        Congressman, Mayor, Mr. Chico, Mr. Vallas, Ms. Buckney, Alderman
    Bernardina, Alderman O'Connor, Recorder White. I don't know if my friend
    John Stroger is here or not, but if he is, hello. I am delighted to be
    here today.
        As all of you know, I'm sure, my wife had a wonderful day in Chicago
    yesterday, and her whole family was here. And I was regaled with it last
    night, everything that happened. Chicago is a really special place, and
    the people who are tied to it have this almost psychic energy, I think,
    about what's going on.
        For example, on the way into Chicago, my brother-in-law told me, he
    said, ``I've got good feelings about this.'' He said, ``I even think the
    Bears are going to win.'' [Laughter] I swear he did. So there is
    something quite mystical about all this but also something very
    wonderful. I thank you for letting me come here.
        I wanted to be here today because this school is the embodiment of
    the effort that I have asked Americans to make to prepare our country
    for the 21st century, to make sure we have an America where every person
    who is responsible enough to work for it can live the American dream,
    where we're still strong enough to lead the world for peace and freedom
    and prosperity, and where we look across all of our diversity and come
    together as one America.
        I know today a lot of Americans are focused on the stock market. It
    may be disappointing, but I think it is neither prudent nor appropriate
    for any President to comment on the hour-by-hour or the day-by-day
    movements of the market. I'd like to ask all of us to remember that our
    economy is as strong and vibrant today as it has been in a generation.
    We saw yesterday that our deficit has come down to $22 billion from $290
    billion. That's the lowest since 1970.
        With unemployment and inflation at their lowest levels in two
    decades, businesses and banks healthy and sound, new jobs being created
    every day, our economy is continuing to grow steady and strong. That's
    why we have to feel confident and continue our economic strategy. We've
    got to balance the budget, expand trade, and invest in the education of
    all our people.
        Now, on that last score--in spite of all the economic progress we're
    making, in spite of the fact that crime is down 5 years in a row, that
    we have the lowest percentage of people on welfare we've had since
    1970--millions of people have left the rolls--on education, we know
    we've got a lot more to do to make sure all children receive the world-
    class education they deserve to thrive in the information economy of the
    21st century. That's why I've put educational excellence and opportunity
    at the top of America's agenda, and that's why I've come to Oscar Mayer
    school, to thank the mayor, the principals, the teachers, the students,
    the parents, and the people of Chicago for leading this crusade.
        Because of what you are doing, the city that works now has a school
    system on the move. Chicago has shown us that having high expectations
    for our children, setting high standards and holding students
    accountable for them, and above all, making sure we stay at it
    systematically, school-by-school, child-by-child--Chicago has shown us
    that this works.
        By abolishing the destructive practice of social promotion and
    giving all children the chance to learn what they need to know, Chicago
    is leading the way to an educated America in which every 8-year-old can
    read independently, every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet, every
    18-year-old can go on to college, every adult can keep on learning for a
    lifetime. That is the vision I want for every American community, and
    Chicago is leading the way.
        Last summer, I signed into law the historic Balanced Budget Act,
    which will help to bring us closer to these goals. It will open the
    doors to college for everyone who is willing to work for it, through
    more Pell grants and work-study positions, better student loans, tax-
    free education IRA's, the HOPE scholarship, and other tax credits for
    all forms of education after high school. We're also well on our way to
    putting computers in all our classrooms by the year 2000 and hooking
    them up to the Internet.
        But none of it will matter if our children don't master the basics.
    That's why I'm fighting to bring our America Reads program to every
    community in the country, gathering an army of volunteers led by our
    AmeriCorps young people to go in and offer to tutor one-on-one all
    children who are having trouble reading. Today, we already have 800
    colleges, tens of thousands of students who are moving into our schools
    and supporting our children in this way.

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        I'm also fighting to introduce more choice and competition into our
    public schools and to establish thousands of charter schools within the
    public school network so people, where they need it, can actually
    fashion schools designed to meet the special needs of special
    populations.
        I want to support communities in making our schools places of
    learning and values, not violence and disorder. And I applaud what your
    principal said about the character education program here. We ought to
    have that in every school in the United States. And I think we have to
    do more to empower parents to take an active role in their children's
    education. I always love to come to a school where a parent and a
    student talk, and I was glad to see them both doing such a good job
    today. Yes, give them a hand. That's good. [Applause]
        But you can do all this and you still have to have high
    expectations, high standards, and some accountability, because people
    have to be working toward a goal and they have to know what the goal is.
    That's why I've worked so hard for the concept of academic standards in
    the basics that we say should apply to every child in America, and to
    establish voluntary tests to measure the students' performance,
    beginning with fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math. This will
    give our parents and our teachers the assurance that their children have
    mastered the basics. This will let every employer know that a diploma
    means something, a job applicant can read a manual, tally a check,
    analyze and solve a problem, and become a dependable employee.
        I want to thank the mayor for his early support of national
    standards, and I thank the city of Chicago for joining with 14 other
    major American cities for pledging to make sure their students meet
    them. This is a truly groundbreaking development. If anyone had told any
    of us who had been working for 20 years in the area of school
    improvement 10 years ago that 15 of the biggest cities in America would
    be leading, not bringing up the rear but leading the fight for higher
    standards for our children, recognizing that our poorest children and
    the kids that grow up in the toughest neighborhoods are the ones who
    need the standards the most, no one would have believed it. This is an
    astonishing, positive development, and you should all be very proud of
    it.
        I can remember a few years ago when the only news those of us who
    didn't live in Illinois got about the Chicago school system was the
    annual strike. [Laughter] I can remember we used to see a picture of the
    Governor's daughter in his office, waiting for the strike to be over,
    hanging around with her dad. And I now see what has happened: A whole
    people, led by a strong mayor and dedicated educators, have rejected low
    test scores, high drop-out rates, students earning diplomas they
    couldn't read, and instead have demanded results from their principals,
    their teachers, their schools, and most importantly, the students,
    letting them know they can't move on to the next grade unless they know
    what they're supposed to know from the grade they're finishing. You've
    strengthened curricula, renovated buildings, retrained teachers,
    expanded preschool education, kept schools open longer in the summertime
    to give children who need it extra help.
        I'd like to say here, for the rest of America that might be watching
    this today, something that you have taught us: Ending social promotion
    does not put children down; it gives us a chance to lift all children
    up. We are not punishing children by making sure they know what they
    need to know and that when they move from grade to grade, it means
    something. And we don't do anyone, especially our poorest children in
    our toughest neighborhoods, a favor by giving them a pass on high
    standards. All of our children can succeed, and they deserve a chance to
    do it, even, if all else fails, repeating a grade.
        You know, people used to say that asking a child to repeat a grade
    was too high a price to pay for learning because of the damage to self-
    esteem. But we know that children develop in different ways at different
    times. And we know that while a year seems like an eternity to an 8-
    year-old child or a 16-year-old child, when you're 50 it seems like
    nothing. [Laughter]
        I care a lot about the self-esteem of the American people. But I
    would ask you to think about the thousands of Americans who are sitting
    in GED classes today, struggling in literacy programs, standing in
    unemployment lines, who can tell you there is nothing more damaging to
    self-esteem than wanting a job and not being able to get one; wanting to
    get an improvement, a promotion, a raise, and not having the skills
    necessary to get it. And if we adults send our children the right
    messages now, their self-esteem will not be harmed by an expression of

    [[Page 1442]]

    love and hope for their future that prevents that sort of problem for
    them later on.
        I want what is happening in Chicago to happen all over America. I
    challenge every school district to adopt high standards, to abolish
    social promotion, to move aggressively to help all students make the
    grade through tutoring and summer school, and to hold schools
    accountable for results, giving them the tools and the leadership and
    the parental involvement to do the job.
        Today I am directing the Department of Education to share promising
    approaches to improving low-performing schools, such as those that
    Chicago has developed, with people all across America. And I'm directing
    the Department of Education to strengthen its own efforts to help
    districts use the Federal money that we have now to transform schools
    that aren't performing into world-class learning centers.
        There is nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's
    right with America. I said that in my first Inaugural; I see it again
    today. If you did it here, it can be done everywhere. If it's happened
    to one child, it can happen to every child. What is working in Chicago
    must blow like a wind of change into every city and every school in
    America. We owe it to our kids, and because you have done it, you've
    given us the courage and the conviction to believe we can do it for all
    of our children.
        Thank you. Stay with it. God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:34 a.m., in the gymnasium. In his
    remarks, he referred to Evaline Medina, fourth-grade student who
    introduced the President, and her mother, Mary Medina; Maggie Sullivan,
    sixth-grade teacher, and Robert Blitstein, principal, Oscar Mayer
    Elementary School; Representative Rod Blagojevich of Illinois; Mayor
    Richard M. Daley of Chicago; Gery J. Chico, president, reform board of
    trustees, Paul Vallas, chief executive officer, and Cozette Buckney,
    chief education officer, Chicago Public Schools; Charles R. Bernardina,
    alderman, 43d ward; Patrick J. O'Connor, alderman, 40th ward; Jesse C.
    White, Jr., Cook County recorder of deeds; and John Stroger, president,
    Cook County board of commissioners.