    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
    [September 9, 2003]
    [Pages 1121-1126]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1121]]

    Remarks at Hyde Park Elementary School in Jacksonville
    September 9, 2003

        Thanks for coming. Please be seated--unless you don't have a chair.
    [Laughter] Thanks for coming, and thanks for letting me come. We're
    thrilled to be at Hyde Park Elementary School. I'm here to talk about
    some recent reforms we've had in education, the Federal role in
    education. I want to describe to you the No Child Left Behind Act and
    the principles behind the No Child Left Behind Act, and why I believe
    the No Child Left Behind Act, in combination with the efforts of
    Governors like Jeb Bush and fantastic teachers who
    are in this room, are going to help America realize its full promise.
        Before I begin--you may recall, I was a Governor as well, and I
    spent a lot of time on making sure the Texas schools were as good as
    they could possibly be. I learned some pretty interesting lessons as the
    Governor. And one lesson is that in order for schools to succeed, you'd
    better have you a good principal. Dr. Nancy Miller is a really good principal. She believes in the worth
    of each individual. She believes in high standards. She believes in
    empowering her teachers to do the right thing. She's constantly willing
    to challenge the status quo if the status quo is not good enough.
        We're at Hyde Park Elementary School because it is one of the many
    successful schools in Jacksonville and across the State of Florida. And
    I want to thank Dr. Miller, and I want to thank
    the teachers of Hyde Park for not only listening to your hearts but
    using logic and sound thought to challenge mediocrity wherever you might
    find it. You know, one of the inherent principles in the No Child Left
    Behind Act is that we believe every child can learn, and we want to
    continue to raise the bar, continue to raise expectations so that every
    child does learn.
        I appreciate so much Secretary Rod Paige for joining us. I like to remind people that he actually
    knows what he's talking about when it comes to public schools because he
    was the superintendent of public schools in Houston, Texas. It's a
    pretty tough assignment, I want you to know. It's not an easy school
    district to govern. But he did a heck of a good job. He too believes
    every child can learn. He believes in setting high standards. He
    believes in asking the question, ``Are we meeting the standards?'' And
    I'm honored that Rod has served our country so well. And I'm proud to
    have him on the stage with me today. Thank you, Rod.
        And then there's Brother. [Laughter] We were
    educated by the same person--[laughter]--Mother. [Laughter] We both have a passion for making sure
    every child learns. That's how we were raised, to do the best we could
    do in the schoolrooms. The truth of the matter is, when you really think
    about it, education--true education begins at home. Every mom and dad is
    a teacher. We had a pretty darn good teacher, I want you to know.
        I'm proud of my brother. He's willing to take
    risks on behalf of the children of the State of Florida. He's willing to
    stand up to the critics. He's willing to stand strong when it comes to
    insisting upon certain principles. We love him, and I'm proud that he
    has joined us here today as well.
        I want to thank Jim Horne, the Florida
    commissioner of education. These commissioners of these States have got
    big jobs already, and then we've compounded their job. We've got a new
    Federal law that needs to be implemented, and we expect these
    commissioners to implement the law, and Jim is doing just that.
        I'm honored that the mayor is here, Mayor Peyton. He's a--I know, I saw him sitting over there. [Laughter]
    He drove

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    from the airport to the football stadium with us. And I told him, I said
    he's doing a pretty good job of handling the traffic. We didn't see a
    lot. [Laughter]
        I know we've got State legislators here. My only admonition to the
    State legislators is to make sure that public education is the number
    one priority of the State of Florida, to do the best you can do about
    setting priorities.
        I want to thank General John Fryer, the
    superintendent of schools here. I thought it was pretty interesting,
    when I was reading the background of the schools here. I see that you
    got you a general--[laughter]--running the school system. That's good.
    [Laughter] It's also good that somebody who served this country in one
    capacity is willing to serve again.
        And one of the things that Laura and I are
    trying to do is encourage people to serve the public school system,
    particularly Laura. She's spending a lot of time heralding Troops to
    Teachers programs to encourage people who have served in one capacity to
    go ahead and get back in the classroom or to serve your community by
    teaching in the school system. We need more of our fellow Americans who
    are looking for something to do to get involved in public education.
    Teaching is a noble profession. Teaching is a chance to leave behind a
    really important legacy, and that is a saved life.
        I want to thank Kim Barnes, who is the
    chairman--chairwoman of the Duval County School Board. That's probably
    the hardest job in America, is to be on the school board. [Laughter]
    It's difficult because a lot of pressures and a lot of people who have
    got opinions. And so I want to thank the school board members who are
    here with us today for serving this important community, for lending
    your time and talents to always, hopefully, raising the bar and always
    insisting on the best.
        We've got some interesting--we had an interesting forum. I'm going
    to describe what we discussed a little earlier, but we've got Wandra
    Sanders here, who's a teacher at Hyde Park, a
    representative of--we had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson, who's a parent, and a mom or a dad.
        By the way, schools really do well when mothers and dads take an
    interest in the school. And for you parents who are here, I want to
    thank you very much for not only, obviously, loving your child but also
    working hard to make sure the school in your community, in your
    neighborhood, has not only the resources necessary to succeed but your
    time and talents to help these good, hard-working teachers and this good
    principal to achieve their objectives.
        We've got some folks from around the country who are here, and I'm
    going to talk about why they're here a little bit. But I do want to
    recognize Eli Broad. He is the president of the
    Broad Foundation. He is from Los Angeles, California. He is an
    incredibly successful business person. He and his wife put together a
    little nest egg. And they asked a question, ``What can we do to help the
    country?'' And they have decided that they would lend their resources
    and talents to the improvement of public education all across America.
    And Eli, thank you so very much for your generosity.
        Tom Luce is with us. He's from the great State
    of Texas. [Laughter] I've known Tom a long time. He runs what's called
    Just for the Kids. Just for the Kids is a program that said, how can we
    make the accountability systems all around America become an effective
    tool to make sure no child is left behind. Tom has been an agitator for
    change in our State of Texas ever since I've known him, and I'm proud
    he's here. Thank you for coming, Tom.
        Bill Cox is with us today. Bill Cox is the
    managing director of School Evaluation Services for Standard & Poor's.
    Standard & Poor's is a part of this new initiative that I'm going to
    describe here in a little bit. And I want to thank Bill and people from
    Standard & Poor's who have joined

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    us as well. I find it interesting that Standard & Poor's, which is
    mainly associated with stocks and bonds, is associated with the true
    wealth of our country, and that is the children of our country. And
    thank you for coming as well. I'm honored you're here.
        Today when I landed at the Naval Air Station, I met a guy named
    Daniel Trifiletti. You don't know Daniel.
    I didn't know him until I got the chance to read his background. He's a
    high school student who is a mentor for kids in middle school. He's an
    amazing guy, when you think about it, that he is willing to take time to
    help somebody else.
        I bring this up because there's a lot made about the might of the
    United States of America, and we're plenty mighty. We're strong
    militarily. And by the way, I intend to keep it that way, in order to
    make the world more peaceful. But that's not the true strength of the
    country. The true strength of the country is the heart and soul of our
    citizens. Really think about what makes America unique. It's the fact
    that we've got millions of people who are willing to dedicate their time
    to help somebody else. And I think it's a remarkable part of our country
    and the fabric of our country.
        I also find it to be great that we have a high school student who is
    willing to be a soldier in the army of compassion, and that's
    Daniel. And so, Daniel, I want to thank
    you for coming. I want to thank you for setting the example. I want to
    thank you for serving meals at the local soup kitchen. I want to thank
    you for your participation in Habitat for Humanity. I want to thank you
    for lending your talents to help some kid achieve his or her dreams.
    Welcome, and thank you for being a leader.
        I like to tell people that the No Child Left Behind Act was the most
    dramatic reforms in public education in a generation. And here's why I
    think it is: First, inherent in the law is the belief that every child
    can learn. That sounds simple, doesn't it? Sometimes, if you think back
    to past practices in public schools, that necessarily wasn't the
    attitude. When you had a system that was just shuffling kids through, it
    said to me that some perhaps thought certain kids couldn't learn, and
    therefore, the best thing to do was just move them on.
        If you believe every child can learn, if you're willing to challenge
    the soft bigotry of low expectations, then you want to know, is it true
    that each child is learning? That's what you want to find out. A system
    which measures progress for each child is a system in which the inherent
    philosophy is, I believe every child can learn.
        If you don't want to know, then you probably don't believe they can
    learn. If you do want to know, then you have this sense of high
    expectations for each child. And so for the first time, the Federal
    Government said, ``In return for money from the Federal Government, we
    are now going to ask the questions, can a child read and write? Can a
    child add and subtract?'' For the first time, the Federal Government got
    involved in education in a different way. We expect results. If you
    believe every child can learn, then you shouldn't fear that question, or
    those questions. You shouldn't fear results.
        People who believe that children can learn say, ``I want to be
    measured to show you that I'm teaching every child. That's what I want
    to show you. I'm a teacher because I love children. I'm a teacher
    because I care about the future. I want to show you. I want to show you,
    the community and the taxpayers and the moms and dads, that I can teach
    and our children are learning.''
        And so we changed the attitude of the Federal Government toward just
    handing out money. You know, I've heard all the debates about
    accountability systems. I mean, you hear it's discriminatory to measure.
    It is discriminatory not to measure. It is pure discrimination--it is
    discrimination not to measure, because guess who gets shuffled through
    the system? Guess

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    who just gets shoved through? It's generally children whose parents
    don't have money. It's generally minority kids. We're just going to move
    them through and hope they come out okay in the end. Well, they don't
    come out okay in the end. We must focus early to make sure every child
    can read and write and add and subtract. The measurement system is the
    way you save lives in America.
        And so the Federal Government said not only in return for money,
    you'll measure, we said we're going to disaggregate results. That's a
    fancy word that says we want to know whether or not Hispanic students
    are learning, whether or not the African American students are learning.
    We want to know if every child is learning; that's what we want to know.
    We want to take a look at every single possible group of citizens to
    determine whether or not we are meeting the high standards that we
    believe so strongly in our hearts.
        So we've got a new system. And we're putting money behind what we
    said we would do. The '04 request by the administration--that's me--
    [laughter]--is $53.1 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School
    Act, which, as you know, is where the majority of Federal money comes
    from. That's a significant increase since I became the President of the
    United States. The Title I portion of that title in the appropriations
    bill is $12.3 billion. That's up 41 percent since I became President of
    the United States. We're putting money into the system.
        We've got a brand new reading initiative where we will have spent,
    since the No Child Left Behind Act was passed, $1.2 billion for reading
    instruction. By the way, we're trying to promote curriculum which
    actually works. We want to make sure, if we spend money on reading, that
    children learn to read. We want to make sure as we spend money on
    reading, teachers know how to teach that which works. Part of that money
    went to teacher training. Eight thousand Florida teachers have now been
    retrained since the law came into being. They're retrained on curriculum
    which work. So the whole purpose is to take Federal money and focus it
    on Title I kids and on teachers and on reading curriculum. It's to make
    sure we meet the objective, make sure we meet the high standards that we
    believe are necessary.
        The money also, by the way, goes to help children who could
    conceivably be left behind. I was in Nashville, Tennessee, yesterday at
    Kirkpatrick Elementary School. A part of the monies I just described to
    you are used for after-school tutoring programs. Those go to a low-
    performing--low-performing schools, low-income people. You don't get
    that money here at Hyde Park because you're not a low-performing school.
    But they still have after-school tutoring here. It's one of the reasons
    why I think the children are doing well and no child is being left
    behind here.
        At Kirkpatrick School, a parent is notified because the school
    district's aggressive. They reach out to parents. They say, ``These
    options are available for your parents. Here's a list of providers, a
    specialist in reading and math that are now available for your child so
    that your child, at no cost, can get after-school tutoring.'' In other
    words, the No Child Left Behind Act does hold people to account, but it
    says that there are--we want to help people out of mediocrity when we
    find it. And there's resources available providing incredibly important
    tutoring.
        You know, one of the things I called for yesterday was to make sure
    Governors and superintendents make it very clear to parents that, where
    applicable, that there is money available for low-income tutoring, money
    available for special focus, money available to make sure that every
    child has an opportunity to succeed. As well, the system says that after
    a period of time, if schools don't improve, then a parent can send their
    child to another public school or a charter school. In other words,
    there's different options available to moms and

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    dads. And that's positive, and that's helpful, and that's healthy.
        In order for parents to be involved--and for that matter, citizens
    to be involved--they have to be able to make informed decisions. As Luce
    reminded me, he said, ``Without data, without facts, without
    information, the discussions about public education mean that a person
    is just another opinion.'' In other words, what we're interested in
    doing is laying out the facts for people to see so people can make
    informed decisions.
        And so therefore, I'm going to describe to you a really innovative
    plan that is being produced by Tom and Eli and Standard & Poor's in conjunction with the Department
    of Education. It's a $50-million plan, plus $5 million from the Federal
    Government, to create a data bank for every citizen in the country to
    access to determine how the schools are doing all around the country.
        It's an interesting opportunity, when you think about it, certainly
    necessary for parents in order for them to make an informed opinion
    about their child. It will help principals determine whether or not the
    curriculum their particular school is using works. It should help
    teachers decide--know whether or not what they're doing is working or
    not working. It will make sure that best practices is--becomes a
    integral part of the dialog all throughout the school system.
        You know, people say to me, ``Well, we can't have a measuring system
    because it's going to be punitive.'' Quite the contrary. A measuring
    system is a useful tool. A measuring system will allow people to know
    where they stand relative to where they need to go. You cannot solve a
    problem until you first diagnose the problem. And that's exactly what
    the accountability system that States design, not the Federal
    Government, is intended to do.
        You might hear us talk about,``Well, the Federal Government told us
    to design a accountability system, but we have to pay for it''--not
    true. The Federal Government said--in this case, we said, ``You need to
    design a system to show us whether or not you're achieving objectives
    with all this money we're sending you. And, oh, by the way, here's a
    little extra money for you to design the systems so we can measure.''
        So this month, we're beginning a new public/private effort that will
    post information about test results and student achievement on the
    Internet so all parents, all teachers, can monitor progress of their
    local schools, their schools relative to other schools in the
    neighborhood, the schools relative to schools from county to county. The
    program will help States analyze the data, the test results, the
    financial data, and other school information required by the Federal act
    to be posted.
        In other words, we're not only going to measure, but an effective
    measurement system is one that says, ``Oh, by the way, here are the
    results for everybody to see, not just a few people, not just a planner
    here or maybe a measurement expert there.'' We want full disclosure. We
    have nothing to hide in America when it comes to results. As a matter of
    fact, since the measurement systems is a tool to achieve that which we
    believe, which is every child can learn, there needs to be full
    disclosure. It's an essential part of developing trust in the public
    school system. It's an essential part of making sure that the best
    practices are shared widely across any particular school district or any
    State. It is essential that parents have data at their disposal.
        I can assure you that a parent who understands what's going on is
    going to be a less frustrated parent. The parent will be more
    comfortable when there's full disclosure about the results and the
    progress toward the standard of excellence that's being made.
        I mention the fact that there's $50 million from the private sector
    being put up. That's where Eli came in. That's an
    incredibly generous contribution to make, when you think about it. I'll
    tell you why it's

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    so generous, is because the access to the Internet will be at no cost. I
    mean, this is a man who said, ``How can I help public schools?'' He
    said, ``I want to be an integral part of the accountability system
    nationwide.'' And initially, there will be 10 States up by the end of
    this January. By the end of '04, every State will be--have their results
    posted, school by school, district by district, county by county, all
    across the State.
        If you're fixing to move from point X to Florida--of course, that
    seems like what's happening, at least according to the Governor, people are moving here and not moving out--you'll be able
    to get on the Internet, and you can determine whether the school in your
    particular neighborhood, how it's faring relative to other schools. If
    you're a teacher and you've got a cousin who is a teacher, and they're
    saying, ``Well, our school system in Tampa is a little better than it is
    here in Jacksonville,'' you can get on the Internet to determine whether
    that's the case. [Laughter]
        If you're a principal and you hear a school is using a reading
    curriculum that seems to make sense and you want to determine whether or
    not it's working, you can get on. And not only can you get on the system
    to determine how that school is doing, you can get on the system to
    determine whether or not the reading curriculum is working for Hispanic
    kids, African American kids, Anglo kids.
        In other words, this is full disclosure of information, because we
    believe every child can learn. We know that by using information
    correctly, every child's problems can be addressed. And we know how
    essential it is that every child does learn in America. The truth of the
    matter is, we're talking about the future of this country right now.
        I mean, I spent a lot of time on the security of our Nation, and I
    can assure you I will continue spending time on the security of our
    Nation. One aspect of that security is to deal with people who hate
    America. It's to go get them before they get us, and that's what we'll
    continue to do. But when you really think about it, when you put your
    mind to it, a second aspect of the security of America is to make sure
    every child is educated. Our country--I'm talking about every aspect of
    security, economic security, security of our families. A hopeful America
    is what I believe in and I know you believe in. A hopeful America is an
    America in which each child can read and write and add and subtract. A
    hopeful America is where children say, ``You know, I'm going to get an
    education early, and I'm going to go to college.'' A hopeful America is
    where people can dream and realize their dreams because the education
    system is fulfilling its promise.
        America's past has been defined by a public school system that has
    met the needs of a complex society. This No Child Left Behind Act and
    the good work of our principals and teachers and good cooperation and
    hard work of Governors like Jeb Bush will mean that
    the public school system in the future will meet the needs of a complex
    society. Working together, we'll make sure that we fulfill our promise
    to the future, and that is, no child will be left behind in America.
        May God bless you all, and may God bless our country.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:50 p.m. in the auditorium. In his
    remarks, he referred to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida; Mayor John Peyton of
    Jacksonville, FL; Nancy Miller, principal, Hyde Park Elementary School;
    John C. Fryer, superintendent, Duval County Public Schools; and Kris
    Barnes, chairman, Duval County School Board. The Office of the Press
    Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.