    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
    [April 30, 2004]
    [Pages 693-696]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Executive Order on American Indian and Alaska
    Native Education
    April 30, 2004

        The President. Thanks for coming. Glad you all are here. Please be
    seated. Thank you for coming. Welcome. I'm so pleased to have so many
    distinguished leaders in this historic place. I see a lot of friendly
    faces here. I want you to know it's a privilege to stand with you as we
    take an important step toward a shared objective, improving the
    education of all American Indian and Alaska Native children. That's what
    we're here to discuss today. It's an important goal.
        Two people are going to be important in this, in reaching this
    goal--we'll reach it, by the way. My attitude is, when America sets a
    goal and puts our mind to it, we'll meet the goal. And two people that
    are going to be very important in reaching this goal will be the
    Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, and
    the Secretary of Education, Rod Paige,
    both of whom have joined me here today. Thank you for coming.
        I'm also pleased that we're joined by some mighty distinguished
    Members of the United States Congress, two from the Senate and three
    from the House, starting with the President pro tem of the Senate,
    Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska--thank you for
    coming, Senator--a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee,
    Senator Craig Thomas from Wyoming--welcome--
    members of the House Resources Committee--three members are with us
    today, Ken Calvert of California, Richard
    Pombo of California, and Dennis
    Rehberg of the great State of Montana.
    We're glad you're here. I want to thank you for taking time. These guys
    are busy people, but obviously, they're committed to this important
    goal.
        I appreciate the tribal leaders who are here. I see leaders from all
    over the country. I really appreciate you coming to--you honor us with
    your presence. And you honor us with your strong commitment to making
    sure that every child learns. It's

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    a really important part of our mutual responsibility, isn't it? When
    you're a leader, you've got to set important goals and follow through on
    those goals. And I know you share the same goal I've got: Every child,
    not just a few, not just some, but every child gets the best possible
    education. That's what we're here to discuss today.
        I want to thank the students who are with me on stage. They've set
    one standard, and that's the standard of excellence. And they're
    achieving that. They're scholars, high school scholars, soon to be
    university and college scholars, who are in town to participate in a
    science bowl. I told them we need more scientists in the country, and
    they picked a good area to become an expert, because there's a lot of
    demand for scientists here in this country that is changing because of
    technology.
        I want to thank the teachers who are here. I appreciate you being a
    teacher. You know, Senator, you might not remember, but I was the
    Governor of Texas once. Well, of course, you remember, what the heck am
    I thinking. [Laughter] But my predecessor was Sam Houston. He was a
    Senator, a Congressman; he was the President of the Republic of Texas.
    It's a pretty big deal when you're the President of the Republic of
    Texas. He was the Governor of Texas. They asked him the most important
    thing he ever did in his life. He said, ``Teacher.'' He didn't hesitate.
    He said, ``Being a teacher.'' So for those of you who are teachers here,
    thank you for being compassionate citizens who care deeply about the
    students of our country.
        We place a high value on education because we understand the
    importance of education to our future and the importance of education to
    tribal nations. It's really important we get it right. In the words of
    the late Sam Ahkeah, the former chairman of the Navajo Nation Council,
    ``We must encourage our young people to go into education. We need
    thousands of young lawyers and doctors and dentists and accountants and
    nurses and secretaries,'' is what he said. You can't be one of those
    unless you're educated, if I could paraphrase what this great leader
    said. His vision was clear. And that's what we're here to talk about
    today, to make sure all our visions are clear, starting at the Federal
    level.
        His commitment to education has been shared by American Indians and
    Alaska Natives through the generations. Today his granddaughter,
    Sharon, is with us. Where are you, Sharon?
    Sharon, thanks for coming. There's nothing better than being a relative
    of a famous person. [Laughter] Sharon is a leader here in Washington,
    DC, following in her granddad's footsteps. So thanks for being here.
    Welcome.
        To improve education for children of every background, I was honored
    to sign what has been called the No Child Left Behind Act. This law
    challenges what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. In other
    words, sometimes people walk into a classroom and see a child and say,
    ``Well, gosh, that child can't learn.'' That's the lowest of low
    expectations. This law basically says we've got a different mindset in
    America. We believe every child can learn and expect every child to
    learn. That means we've raised standards for every child, not just a
    few.
        You know what happens when you have low expectations and low
    standards? People just get simply shuffled through the system. And you
    know who gets shuffled through, the so-called ``hard to educate,'' the
    isolated, the inner-city child. That's not good enough for America, and
    this law changes that attitude. We've spent more money at the Federal
    level. But now, for the first time, we're asking the question, ``Can you
    show results?'' If you expect every child to learn to read and write and
    add and subtract, if you believe every child can learn to read and write
    and add and subtract, it makes sense for people to show us whether or
    not every child is meeting those goals.
        The No Child Left Behind Act challenges the soft bigotry of low
    expectations

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    because it helps raise the bar, and it helps identify problems early,
    before they're too late. A terrible problem we have at times is that a
    child can't learn to read early--doesn't learn to read early and just
    gets moved through the system. And then they come out of their schools,
    and they can't read at all. And we've got to stop it now, before it's
    too late. And the No Child Left Behind Act does that.
        The No Child Left Behind Act is meant for every student, not just a
    few. It's going to improve the lives of our American Indian children and
    Alaska Native children. It is an important part of making sure we have a
    hopeful future.
        It's also very important that we have people who work hard to make
    sure the No Child Left Behind Act works. One way to do so is for there
    to be teacher training. You see, if we expect children to learn to read
    and write, we've got to use curriculum that work, and therefore, we need
    people who know how to teach the curriculum that works.
        An accountability system, by the way--I recognize sometimes people
    fear it, but my attitude is, how do you know whether or not you're
    succeeding unless you measure? Or how do you know whether the curriculum
    you're using works unless you measure? It's not worth guessing anymore
    as to whether or not something that you've got in place is working. We
    need to know, see. And one of the things--we're learning how best to
    teach, and we need people to teach the teachers how to teach.
        And Marilyn Nichols is with us today.
    Where are you, Marilyn? Oh, there you are. Thanks for coming. Marilyn is
    a--she leads an intertribal teacher training program in the Haskell
    Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. She's really making a
    profound difference in a lot of people's lives by using her skills to
    train teachers on how to teach. In other words, the effort has got to be
    more than just measuring; the effort has got to be a unified effort to
    help teachers follow their hearts and to help make sure that every
    student has got a qualified teacher in their classroom. I really want to
    thank you for what you're doing. I appreciate your soul. I appreciate
    your hard work. I also appreciate your clear vision.
        And today I'm going to sign an Executive order that will build on
    the No Child Left Behind Act. First, I want to thank the tribal leaders
    who have been involved with the writing of this order. Secondly, an
    Executive order is, when it's signed by the President, means something.
    At least it does when this President signs it. [Laughter] My order
    establishes a Federal working group, cochaired by Secretaries
    Norton and Paige, with this specific mission: to help American Indian and
    Alaska Native children meet the standards set by the No Child Left
    Behind Act.
        This is an important mission. It's an important mission that will
    call together elements of our Government to put forth a strategy. This
    Commission will consult closely with tribal leaders. See, we believe
    people closest to the problem are those that can help designate the
    solutions to the problems. It will meet with members of my National
    Advisory Council on Indian Education, who were sworn in by Secretary
    Paige this morning. And thank you all for
    coming.
        The Executive order calls on Secretary Paige to develop recommendations to improve the teaching of
    reading. I'll never forget when I was the Governor of Texas, and a
    woman--I was speaking in Houston--a woman walked up and said, ``Reading
    is the new civil right.'' It's a powerful statement, when you think
    about it, isn't it? ``Reading is the new civil right.'' If we're
    interested in civil rights and human condition and human improvement,
    our kids have got to learn to read. And there needs to be a focused
    strategy to make sure that that happens--that that happens.
        We've got to strengthen early childhood education. What that means
    is, the best place to start is early in a child's education.

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    The truth of the matter is, the first teacher a child has is a mom or a
    dad. And we want our parents to understand how important it is to read
    to their children. But we also want the education system to focus early
    in a child's education. We want them reading. We want to dash the false
    expectations that certain children can't learn to read.
        We want to improve preparation for college and the workforce. We
    want there to be high high school graduation rates. In other words,
    we're going to raise the standards. That's what this Commission is going
    to do. It's going to work with the leadership to say, ``How can we work
    together to raise the standards and expect the best?''
        Under this order, Secretaries Norton and
    Paige will organize a national conference
    to discuss ways to meet our goal. In other words, there's not going to
    be just a group of people huddled in Washington. We're going to call in
    citizens and get input. We want what they call community buy-in. We want
    people understanding the mission. We also want to make sure we achieve
    high academic achievement while maintaining the strong and vibrant
    tradition of cultural learning. Learning to read and honoring a culture
    go hand in hand; they're not mutually exclusive. And that's an important
    part--[applause].
        I told you I'm an optimistic person. I believe when America sets a
    goal and puts our mind to it, we can achieve those goals. I also know
    that every parent of every heritage shares the great dream of a better
    life for their children. It's a common dream we all have, and it's an
    important dream to recognize as real in all communities. We will
    continue the Federal Government's longstanding commitment to the
    sovereignty of American Indians and Alaska Natives. And we will continue
    our government-to-government cooperation as we work to meet this very
    vital goal.
        So thank you for coming. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to
    share some thoughts with you. And thank you for witnessing the signing
    of this Executive order. For those who are part of the authorship, I
    appreciate your input. I appreciate your willingness to make your views
    known.
        And now I'm going to sign this Executive order. And if the Members of the Congress would like to come up and serve as witnesses, I'd be
    honored.

    [At this point, the President signed the Executive order.]

        The President. Thank you all for coming.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:45 p.m. in Room 450 of the Dwight D.
    Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The Executive order is listed in
    Appendix D at the end of this volume.