    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [February 22, 1999]
    [Pages 232-234]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 232]]

    Remarks at the National Governors' Association Meeting
    February 22, 1999

        I know we're beginning a little late, so I will get right into my
    remarks and try to truncate them a little bit so we can have the maximum
    amount of time for discussion. Let me begin by saying that Hillary and I
    were delighted to have you here last night. We had a wonderful time.
    This room is in a little different condition than it was last evening,
    but I hope both events will prove to be enjoyable.
        Let me say that I have been a participant in one way or the other in
    every Governors' meeting since 1979, for 20 years. I had the privilege
    of serving with 150 of my fellow Americans as Governors over a 12-year
    period. One of the best has passed away in the last few months, Governor
    Lawton Chiles of Florida. And I wanted to
    mention him both because he was an important member of the NGA and
    because he had the good sense to go from Washington back home, instead
    of the other way around.
        I wanted to thank Governor Jeb Bush for his
    proposal to set aside some of the tobacco settlement money in Florida
    for the foundation named in Governor Chiles' name, for the benefit of
    the children of the State. Those of us who knew and cared for Lawton are
    profoundly grateful for that. And I wanted to mention with the
    remembrance of him because he gave so much of his life, and the older he
    got, the more he gave to the future of our children. I know we have a
    lot of things to do today, but I'd like to spend my few moments talking
    about the education of our kids.
        As I said in my State of the Union Address, the prosperity the
    Nation now enjoys gives us a rare opportunity and, I believe, a profound
    obligation to do more to ensure the education of all of our children. At
    a very important time, we have, as Secretary Riley never tires of
    saying, the largest school population and the most diverse one we've
    ever had. We have more overcrowded schools and more old and disrepaired
    schools than we have ever had. And we have more opportunities to seize
    the benefits of the well-educated population than we have ever had.
        The budget that I sent to Congress this month, after the State of
    the Union, calls for spending $1.4 billion to help States and school
    districts hire new and better trained teachers. That's a 17 percent
    increase over the budget I signed last fall, and it moves us
    considerably closer to our goal of hiring 100,000 new teachers over the
    next 7 years--now the next 6 years. It calls on Congress to pass our tax
    proposal to build or modernize 6,000 schools, which is a huge problem in
    many of your States. It triples our budget for after-school and summer
    school programs to $600 million. That's enough to help local schools
    keep a million children in the schools and off the street during the
    hours when parents work and juvenile crime soars.
        I had an interesting discussion last night with Mrs.
    Leavitt and Mrs. Kitzhaber about the importance of keeping young people in
    school, later in the school day. It includes new funds to stay on track
    to hook all our classrooms up to the Internet and to reach our goal of
    3,000 charter schools by the year 2000.
        I think it is very important that we invest more money, as we have
    more children, and as we are going to have to replace a large number of
    teachers who will be retiring, and make sure that they have been
    adequately prepared. But I think it's also important that we candidly
    assess how we invest the money we are now spending. The Federal
    Government already is investing $15 billion a year in public schools.
    This year we have to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education
    Act. I believe we should change the way we spend the money we are
    already spending. I don't know how many times I've heard Governors say
    that over the last 15 or 16 years about State funds.
        The idea behind the ``Education Accountability Act,'' which I will
    send to Congress next month, is to say after, now more than 15 years of
    education research and efforts since the issuance of the ``Nation At
    Risk'' report, and the 10th year after the Governors and President Bush
    issued the ``Goals 2000'' report, it is time for the Federal Government
    to invest in those things which Governors and school districts and
    principals and teachers and students and parents have proved are
    critical for raising student achievement, which is the theme of your
    conference.

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        It says that school districts accepting Federal money must end
    social promotion, turn around or shut down failing schools, ensure
    teachers know the subjects they're teaching, have and enforce reasonable
    discipline codes, and empower parents with report cards on their
    schools.
        I say again, we did not dream up these ideas in Washington. We
    learned them from North Carolina, where Governor Hunt has led the way in improving teacher quality with
    performance assessments, incentives for veteran teachers to become even
    more proficient, a strategy to turn around or shut down failing schools;
    in Pennsylvania, where Governor Ridge is improving
    school safety with effective discipline codes; in Delaware, where
    Governor Carper is putting an end to social
    promotion by insisting that students pass State tests before they move
    to the next grade; in California, where Governor Davis has asked the legislature to turn around failing schools
    with a new accountability plan; in Michigan, where Governor
    Engler is supporting greater accountability by
    requiring school districts to send parents report cards. And I could
    mention every Governor in this room in some specific or another, because
    these ideas represent the best practices in education reform today,
    proven in the laboratories of democracy at the State, city, and school
    district level.
        Many of you have proposed one or more of these ideas in your state
    of the State addresses. In his state of the State, Governor
    Engler endorsed all five of them and said he
    didn't understand how anyone could disagree. I'm with him.
        Some people already are trying to frame this debate here in
    Washington, however, in partisan or ideological terms, and try to force
    everyone to take sides, when I'd like to use it as an opportunity for us
    to debate, discuss, and come together.
        You'll hear some people say the Federal Government shouldn't be
    involved at all in public education, just send us the check, and we'll
    take care of the rest. In 1787 our Founding Fathers declared that all
    new territories had to set aside land for public schools, establishing
    at the birth of our Republic the principle that public education, though
    a State and local responsibility, is a national priority. In 1862
    President Lincoln created the land-grant college system. In 1917 Woodrow
    Wilson mandated vocational training in public high schools. In 1958
    President Eisenhower created the new program to help public school
    teachers improve math and science instruction in the aftermath of
    Sputnik.
        None of these Federal actions undermine the ability of State and
    local government to run their schools. Each was a necessary response to
    the challenge the Nation faced at the time. I believe we are at a
    similar moment of challenge today. And it should lead, I believe, in the
    direction of all the work that has been done by Governors since 1983
    toward what works to raise student achievement.
        Some will say the Federal Government should be giving States more
    flexibility, not demanding more accountability. I think it's a false
    choice and the Federal Government should be giving you more of both. You
    know from your own interactions that flexibility and accountability can
    achieve the right ends working with local governments.
        Since I've been here, our administration has cut regulations in
    elementary and secondary education programs by two-thirds, granted 357
    waivers so that States and school districts can have the flexibility to
    try new approaches. We don't have any business telling you whom to hire,
    how to teach, how to run schools. I have vigorously supported more
    school-based management and more flexibility for you. But let's not kid
    ourselves. We are not doing our children any favors by continuing to
    subsidize practices that don't work and failing to invest in practices
    that do.
        We shouldn't have a local option for schools to fail, year-in and
    year-out. Governors have recognized that for years. If you go back and
    read the ``Goals 2000'' statement, that--there's still a few of us
    around this room that were there back then--that the Governors hammered
    out with President Bush and his Education
    Department, and the allocation of responsibilities under that statement,
    it is clear that there has long been a recognition of our joint
    responsibility to raise student achievement. And I was thrilled when
    that became the topic of your endeavors this year.
        There may be some who say there's now no longer any need for the
    Federal Government to assist on these accountability measures, because
    States and school districts are doing it on their own. I have no doubt
    that these ideas eventually will spread to every State and school
    district in America. The question is, how long will it take to happen?

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        Our Federal system, our laboratories of democracy, are great at
    inventing new ideas and testing them out. At least in the area of
    education, we're not so good at spreading the best of those ideas around
    in a comprehensive and timely fashion. It took over 100 years for laws
    mandating compulsory, free elementary education to spread from few
    States to the whole Nation. That pace of change might have been all
    right in the 19th century; it won't do for the 21st. We don't have the
    luxury of waiting and continuing to subsidize failure.
        Now, let me just give one example of that, and then I'll turn it
    over to your chairman. In 1986, the NGA issued a report called ``Time
    For Results,'' with task forces chaired by Lamar Alexander, Tom Keane, Dick
    Riley, and me, urging the Governors to
    intervene in low-performing schools and school districts and to take
    over or close down academically bankrupt schools--1986. In 1987, nine
    States had the authority to do that. In 1990, the NGA issued a report,
    ``Educating America: State Strategies for Achieving National Education
    Goals.'' In 1988, 18 States offered assistance or intervention in low-
    performance schools. In 1998, NGA policy supported State focus on
    schools and reiterated the 1988 policy that States should have the
    responsibility for enforcing accountability, including establishing
    clear penalties in cases of sustained failures to improve student
    performance. In 1999, 19 States have procedures for intervening in
    failing schools, 16 for replacing school staff or closing down the
    school.
        This is tough politics. I don't know that I could have passed this
    through my legislature. I do know that if we have the reauthorization of
    the Federal law this year and we're sending this out, and all we do is
    to say we ought to do what the NGA said we should do 13 years ago, that
    will accelerate the pace of reform in education, and I think it's a
    worthy thing.
        I hope we can pass it. I want to work with you. And it is not
    inconsistent with our shared commitment to better flexibility in
    education.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:05 a.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Governors Jeb Bush of Florida,
    James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina, Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, Gray
    Davis of California, John Engler of Michigan, and NGA Chairman Thomas R.
    Carper of Delaware; Jacalyn Leavitt, wife of NGA Vice Chairman Gov.
    Michael O. Leavitt of Utah; and Sharon Kitzhaber, wife of Gov. John A.
    Kitzhaber of Oregon.