    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [February 20, 1999]
    [Pages 223-224]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    February 20, 1999

        Good morning. This weekend, Governors from all over our country are
    here in Washington to talk about the long-term challenges facing our
    Nation as we prepare to enter the 21st century. Of those challenges,
    none is more important than educating our children--all our children--to
    world-class standards. Today I want to talk about how we must work
    together at every level of government and in every community to make
    sure our Nation's public schools are the best in the world.
        For 6 years now, improving education has been one of our highest
    priorities. Even as we have held fast to fiscal discipline, replacing an
    age of crippling budget deficits with a new era of budget surpluses, we
    have nearly doubled our investment in education and training.
        The balanced budget I sent to Washington this month strengthens that
    commitment to our children's education with even more resources to help
    States improve accountability, to build or modernize 6,000 schools,* to
    reduce class size in the early grades, to start more after-school
    programs, to connect every classroom and library to the Internet, and to
    finish the job of hiring 100,000 new highly trained teachers.
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        * White House correction.
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        This is an education agenda for the 21st century. But with more
    children entering school than ever before and enrollments continuing to
    rise, we know we must draw on every resource we possess to strengthen
    and improve our public schools.
        As both a former Governor and a parent, I know the greatest
    innovations in education do not start in Washington. They start in local
    schools and school districts, in community councils and parent-teacher
    groups. They start in States like North Carolina, where Governor
    Hunt has led the way to improve teacher
    quality, with performance assessment for new teachers and incentives for
    veteran teachers to become even more proficient and to become board-
    certified master teachers.
        They start in Michigan, where Governor Engler is supporting greater accountability in

    [[Page 224]]

    schools by requiring school districts to send parent report cards on how
    well their schools are doing. They start in Delaware, where Governor
    Carper putting an end to social promotion
    by insisting that students pass State tests before they move to next
    grades. They start in Pennsylvania, where Governor Ridge is improving school safety with effective discipline
    codes. They're starting in States like California, where Governor
    Davis has called on the State legislature to turn
    around failing schools with a new accountability plan.
        As I have said many times, every problem in education in America has
    been solved somewhere, by somebody, in America. The trick is helping
    more communities to put those proven solutions to work in their own
    public schools. I believe the National Government has an obligation to
    help them do that.
        That's why, in my State of the Union Address, I proposed an
    ambitious new agenda to invest more of our resources in what we know is
    working and to stop investing in what doesn't. My plan will help every
    school district to take five steps that are already working in schools
    around the country, steps advocated by teachers and principals and
    parents and students themselves: ending social promotion, but investing
    more money to help students with summer school and after-school
    programs, so we don't blame students when the system fails them;
    adopting and enforcing reasonable discipline codes; giving parents
    report cards on their children's schools and giving parents and children
    more choice of schools, with charter schools and more public school
    choice; turning around or shutting down the worst performing public
    schools; and ensuring that all new teachers are trained in the subject
    they'll be teaching.
        Now, these steps are all based on proven experience. They're common
    sense. We have to make them common practice in every school district in
    America.
        All across our Nation, we're seeing a grassroots revolution in
    education, a revolution in accountability and rising expectations. This
    year we have a rare opportunity to use our new prosperity to help this
    revolution spread to every single school district, every classroom,
    every child.
        Now, some in Congress believe the National Government has no
    business helping communities to improve their schools in this way. But I
    think strengthening education is a national priority. So I urge Congress
    to help reduce class size, to modernize our school buildings, to improve
    teacher quality, to make accountability for results--ending social
    promotion, reasonable discipline codes, all these other things that I
    have advocated--make these things the law of the land. If we do this, we
    can transform our public schools; we can lift our children up; we can
    give them the education they need to make the most of their lives in an
    exciting new century.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 7:30 p.m. on February 19 in the
    Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February
    20. In his remarks, the President referred to Governors James B. Hunt,
    Jr., of North Carolina; John Engler of Michigan; Thomas R. Carper of
    Delaware; Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania; and Gray Davis of California. The
    transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on
    February 19 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.