[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[August 30, 1997]
[Pages 1118-1119]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
August 30, 1997

    Good morning. This week a record number of American children will be 
heading back to school, reminding us of our greatest obligation, to 
prepare our children for the 21st century. We can't do that without a 
commitment to educational excellence for all those children, expecting 
them to meet high standards and testing to see if they do.
    In my State of the Union Address, I challenged every State to adopt 
high national standards of academic excellence, defining what every 
child should learn, and by 1999, to join in a national test for all 
fourth graders in reading and all eighth graders in math, to ensure they 
have mastered these basics.
    We know that challenging our students to achieve excellence works. 
This week the College Board announced that SAT math scores continue to 
rise; and today the National Assessment for Education Progress, the 
organization that issues what we call the Nation's report card, 
announced that in recent years we have improved math and science 
performance at every age level. Most exciting, more high schoolers are 
taking challenging courses and college-level courses.
    Still, we all know we have more to do to improve our schools and to 
raise learning levels for all of our students. I've been working to 
improve education for nearly 20 years now, and I am convinced we can 
give our children the education they need to thrive in the 21st century 
only by setting high standards and by challenging students, teachers, 
parents, and principals to meet them. National standards will help us to 
upgrade curricula, improve teaching, and target students and schools who 
need assistance.

[[Page 1119]]

    I'm pleased that Governors and mayors from all over the country, 
business leaders, and educators from States and cities, big and small, 
people of both parties, are joining in this effort. We're working to 
make sure this doesn't become a partisan issue.
    Some people worry that the Federal Government would play too large a 
role in developing the test. To meet that concern, I have instructed my 
staff to rewrite our proposal to make sure these tests are developed not 
by the Department of Education but by an independent bipartisan board 
created by Congress many years ago. This will make sure these tests 
measure what they should, nothing more, nothing less.
    Still, there are some in Congress who, even as our children are 
heading back to school, are working to undermine the very progress in 
education our children are counting on. They have proposed an amendment 
that would prevent us from developing a common test for math and reading 
and, therefore, would prevent your school district or your State or your 
child from choosing to take the test. That means you won't be able to 
find out if your child's school is meeting world-class standards.
    The arguments they're using are the very same ones we've heard for 
years now. They amount to a determination to avoid accountability. Some 
say we shouldn't pay for test development even though it's being done by 
an independent body. Some say the test will be misused, even though 
participation is voluntary and is clearly designed to show how students 
and schools are doing and to show the way toward improving them. Some 
say it's unfair to poor kids and kids of immigrant parents, even though 
many big-city school districts, including those in six of seven of our 
largest cities, say they want to be a part of the test and the national 
standards movement even if their States don't.
    The fact is high standards are essential to providing our children 
the best education in the world, and I intend to do whatever is 
necessary to make sure we move forward.
    The 21st century will be a time of remarkable opportunity. With high 
national education standards, we can make sure all our children have the 
education they need to seize these opportunities. Without them, our 
children will continue to pay for our own low expectations and our own 
limited vision for them. Our children, our schools, our future are far 
too important to be anything less than world class. Let us move forward 
into the 21st century with high standards and make sure we meet them.

Note: The address was recorded at 6:04 p.m. on August 29 at a private 
residence in Martha's Vineyard, MA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on 
August 30.