[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
[January 8, 2002]
[Pages 23-26]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Signing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 in Hamilton, 
Ohio
January 8, 2002

    The President. Thank you all very much.
    Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
    The President. Okay. I know you all are anxious to get back to 
class. [Laughter] So please be seated. [Laughter] Thank you for such a 
warm welcome. It's great to be in the home of the Big Blue, Hamilton 
High School. I want to thank you all for coming. I particularly want to 
thank my friend the Governor of the great State of 
Ohio, Governor Taft, for being here. I want to thank Tracey 
Miller for being so hospitable. I want to 
thank all who have come to witness this historic moment.
    For those of you who have studied the history of our Government, you 
know most bills are signed at the White House. But I decided to sign 
this bill in one of the most important places in America, a public 
school.
    We've got large challenges here in America. There's no greater 
challenge than to make sure that every child--and all of us on this 
stage mean every child, not just a few children--every single child, 
regardless of where they live, how they're raised, the income level of 
their family, every child receive a first-class education in America.
    And as you know, we've got another challenge, and that's to protect 
America from evil ones. And I want to assure the seniors and juniors and 
sophomores here at Hamilton High School that the effort that this great 
country is engaged in, the effort to defend freedom and to defend our 
people, the effort to rout out terror wherever it exists, is noble and 
just and right, and your great country will prevail in this effort.
    I long for peace. But I also understand that if we do not lead the 
world against terror, that your children and your grandchildren will not 
grow up in a society that is as free as the society we have today. 
Freedom is the precious gift that one generation can pass to the next. 
It is a gift and a promise that I intend to keep to the American 
children.
    And we owe the children of America a good education. And today 
begins a new era, a new time in public education in our country. As of 
this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform and a new 
path of results.

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    Our schools will have higher expectations. We believe every child 
can learn. Our schools will have greater resources to help meet those 
goals. Parents will have more information about the schools and more say 
in how their children are educated. From this day forward, all students 
will have a better chance to learn, to excel, and to live out their 
dreams.
    I want to thank the Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, for being here and for his leadership. I asked 
Rod to join my administration because I wanted somebody who understood 
what it meant to run a school district in Washington, DC. I didn't need 
somebody that based his knowledge on theory; I wanted somebody who based 
his knowledge on experience. And Rod was a teacher, a school board 
member, and the superintendent of the Houston Independent School 
District. He did a fine job there, and he's doing a fine job in 
Washington.
    Reaching this moment has not been easy, as you could tell from 
Chairman Boehner's discussion. [Laughter] 
But we made it because of the willingness of four fine leaders to do 
what was right for America. We made it because proud Members of the 
House and the Senate, loyal to their parties, decided to set partisan 
politics aside and focus on what was right for America.
    I want to thank George Miller. I call him 
Big George, Jorge el Grande. [Laughter] As John mentioned, George and I 
aren't from the same political ideology; except when I met with George 
in Austin, I could tell he shares the same passion I share for making 
sure that every child gets educated. And he, like me and others, realize 
that a system that simply shuffles children through the schools is a 
system that's going to leave people behind, and so we made up our minds 
right then and there to do something about it.
    I appreciate so very much my friend Judd Gregg from the State of New Hampshire being here. He was my 
campaign manager in the New Hampshire primary. I still invited him to 
come with me. [Laughter] After here, we're going to New Hampshire. I 
look forward to singing Judd's praises because he is a solid, solid 
United States Senator, honest, full of integrity, and like the others 
here, he buckled down to do what was right for the children.
    And then, of course, there's Senator Edward Kennedy. And the folks at the Crawford coffee shop--[laughter]--
would be somewhat shocked when I told them I actually like the fellow. 
[Laughter] He is a fabulous United States Senator. When he's against 
you, it's tough; when he's with you, it is a great experience.
    And I'm signing this bill here because it's the home of the 
chairman, John Boehner. John did a really 
good job. He shepherded the process. He made sure people showed up for 
the meetings. He was dogged in his determination to get this bill done. 
It would not have happened without his leadership. And all four of these 
Members up here need to be proud of the legacy they have left behind. 
This is a good bill for the American children, and I'm proud to sign it 
in their presence.
    There are other Members of the Congress who are here, as well, and I 
want to thank them for coming. Senator Evan Bayh 
from the State of Indiana is here. Evan, thank you for your leadership 
on education reform. Senator Mike DeWine of your 
State of Ohio, who helped author--who helped to author the safe and 
drug-free schools part of this bill, thank you for your leadership. 
Steve Chabot of Ohio, Van Hilleary of 
Tennessee, thank you both for coming, as well.
    In that box is the bill. I don't intend to read it all. [Laughter] 
It's not exactly light reading. [Laughter] But if you were to read it 
all, you would find that it contains some very important principles that 
will help guide our public school system for the next decades.
    First principle is accountability. Every school has a job to do, and 
that's to teach the basics and teach them well. If we want

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to make sure no child is left behind, every child must learn to read, 
and every child must learn to add and subtract. So in return for Federal 
dollars, we are asking States to design accountability systems to show 
parents and teachers whether or not children can read and write and add 
and subtract in grades three through eight.
    The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can 
learn, we expect every child to learn, and you must show us whether or 
not every child is learning. I read a quote one time from a young lady 
in New York. She said, ``I don't ever remember taking an exam. They just 
kept passing me along. I ended up dropping out in the seventh grade. I 
basically felt nobody cared.''
    The story of children being just shuffled through the system is one 
of the saddest stories of America. ``Let's just move them through.'' 
It's so much easier to move a child through than trying to figure out 
how to solve a child's problems. The first step to making sure that a 
child is not shuffled through is to test that child as to whether or not 
he or she can read and write or add and subtract.
    The first way to solve a problem is to diagnose it. And so, what 
this bill says, it says every child can learn. And we want to know 
early, before it's too late, whether or not a child has a problem in 
learning. I understand taking tests aren't fun. Too bad. [Laughter] We 
need to know in America. We need to know whether or not children have 
got the basic education.
    No longer is it acceptable to hide poor performance. No longer is it 
acceptable to keep results away from parents. One of the interesting 
things about this bill, it says that we're never going to give up on a 
school that's performing poorly, that when we find poor performance, a 
school will be given time and incentives and resources to correct their 
problems. A school will be given time to try other methodologies, 
perhaps other leadership, to make sure that people can succeed. If, 
however, schools don't perform, if, however, given the new resources, 
focused resources, they are unable to solve the problem of not educating 
their children, there must be real consequences. There must be a moment 
in which parents can say, ``I've had enough of this school.'' Parents 
must be given real options in the face of failure in order to make sure 
reform is meaningful.
    And so, therefore, this bill's second principle is, is that we trust 
parents to make the right decisions for their children. Any school that 
doesn't perform, any school that cannot catch up and do its job, a 
parent will have these options: a better public school, a tutor, or a 
charter school. We do not want children trapped in schools that will not 
change and will not teach.
    The third principle of this bill is that we have got to trust the 
local folks on how to achieve standards, to meet the standards. In 
Washington, there's some smart people there, but the people who care 
most about the children in Hamilton are the citizens of Hamilton. The 
people who care most about the children in this school are the teachers 
and parents and school board members. And therefore, schools not only 
have the responsibility to improve; they now have the freedom to 
improve. The Federal Government will not micromanage how schools are 
run. We believe strongly--we believe strongly the best path to education 
reform is to trust the local people. And so the new role of the Federal 
Government is to set high standards, provide resources, hold people 
accountable, and liberate school districts to meet the standards.
    I can't think of any better way to say to teachers, ``We trust 
you.'' And first of all, we've got to thank all the teachers who are 
here. I thank you for teaching. Yours is indeed a noble profession, and 
our society is better off because you decided to teach. And by saying we 
trust local folks, we're really saying we trust you. We trust you. We 
want you to have as much flexibility as possible to see to it that every

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child that walks in your classroom can succeed. So thank you for what 
you do.
    And a fourth principle is that we're going to spend more money, more 
resources, but they'll be directed at methods that work, not feel-good 
methods, not sound-good methods, but methods that actually work, 
particularly when it comes to reading. We're going to spend more on our 
schools, and we're going to spend it more wisely.
    If we've learned anything over the last generations, money alone 
doesn't make a good school. It certainly helps. But as John mentioned, we've spent billions of dollars with lousy 
results. So now it's time to spend billions of dollars and get good 
results.
    As John mentioned, too many of our kids 
can't read. You know, a huge percentage of children in poverty can't 
read at grade level. That's not right in America. We're going to win the 
war overseas, and we need to win the war against illiteracy here at 
home, as well. And so this bill--so this bill focuses on reading. It 
sets a grand goal for the country: Our children will be reading by the 
third grade. That's not an impossible goal. It's a goal we must meet if 
we want every child to succeed. And so, therefore, we tripled the amount 
of Federal funding for scientifically based early reading programs.
    We've got money in there to make sure teachers know how to teach 
what works. We've got money in there to help promote proven methods of 
instruction. There are no more excuses, as far as I'm concerned, about 
not teaching children how to read. We know what works, the money is now 
available, and it's up to each local district to make sure it happens. 
It's up to you, the citizens of Hamilton, to make sure no child is left 
behind. And the Federal Government can spend money, and we can help set 
standards, and we can insist upon accountability. But the truth of the 
matter is, our schools will flourish when citizens join in the noble 
cause of making sure no child is left behind.
    This is the end of a legislative process. Signing this bill is the 
end of a long, long time of people sitting in rooms trying to hammer out 
differences. It's a great symbol of what is possible in Washington when 
good people come together to do what's right. But it's just the 
beginning of change. And now it's up to you, the local citizens of our 
great land, the compassionate, decent citizens of America, to stand up 
and demand high standards, and to demand that no child--not one single 
child in America--is left behind.
    Thank you for letting us come. May God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 9:50 a.m. in the gymnasium at Hamilton High 
School. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio and Tracey 
Miller, principal, Hamilton High School. H.R. 1, approved January 8, was 
assigned Public Law No. 107-110.