    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [August 29, 2006]
    [Pages 1564-1565]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in a Discussion on the Gulf Coast School Library Recovery
    Initiative in New Orleans, Louisiana
    August 29, 2006

        The President. Laura and I want to thank the
    educators and students who have taken time to come over and help us make
    the point that renewal requires good education, and that there are a lot
    of good folks up and down the gulf coast who understand that, and that
    part of good education means having good books and strong libraries.
        And so I'm going to turn it over to the person who's the strong, good library person in our family.
        The First Lady. Well, I'm so excited today to
    get to see each one of you. I had a foundation already for school
    libraries, and we were just getting ready to disband the fundraising arm
    of that, the advisory committee, last year, last October. And

    [[Page 1565]]

    when we met for our last meeting, they said, ``Let's keep going, and
    let's raise money now specifically for the gulf coast and try to raise
    enough money so that if every school comes up and is functional again
    and is staffed, that they can apply for a grant for--to stock their
    library.''
        And it's been a thrill to be associated with school people. I know
    how school people work. You're first-responders, just like firemen and
    policemen. You know you've got to get your schools up and going
    immediately. And I want to thank you for your determination and for your
    very hard work, because I know that many of the people on every school
    staff who rebuilt their schools are also having to rebuild their own
    lives. They lost their own houses, or they are living in FEMA trailers.
    And so they're doing double work, and I want to thank you very, very
    much for that.
        This is the second round of grants that we're announcing today; we
    gave 10 schools, 7 in Louisiana and 3 in Mississippi, earlier this
    summer. And this is our second round of grants to 10 more schools, once
    again 7 in Louisiana and 3 in Mississippi.
        These grants, for the press, might want to know that these are for
    materials to restock a school library. They come in the form of a check
    because we know that school librarians want to build their library the
    way that it will support their curriculum and be most appropriate and
    perfect for their schoolchildren. So this is not--this is not a book
    distribution; this is a check to these schools so they can do what all
    professional librarians want to do, and that is restock their libraries
    with the best books possible, including, of course, books that are
    especially bound for libraries so they can get a lot of use.
        So I'm so excited to be here with all of you. I especially want to
    thank four foundations which have been very, very generous for the
    second round of grants. The AT&T Foundation, Conoco/Philips, Target, and
    Enterprise Corporation have been very generous so that we can continue
    to give grants across the gulf coast. And I want to thank them, their
    representatives of their corporations here. Thank you all very much for
    that.
        And I also want to thank Marshall Payne out of Dallas, who's the
    chairman of the Gulf Coast Recovery Initiative. He's back here--and Pam
    Willeford, who's our director.
        So, Pam, I believe we'll take it over to you next.

    [At this point, the public portion of the event concluded; the
    discussion continued, however, and no transcript was provided.]

    Note: The President spoke at 11:04 a.m. at Warren Easton Senior High
    School. The First Lady referred to Marshall B. Payne, chairman, Gulf
    Coast School Library Recovery Initiative; and Pamela P. Willeford,
    chair, advisory committee, Laura Bush Foundation for America's
    Libraries.