[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 16 (Monday, April 26, 1993)]
[Pages 643-644]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting the ``Goals 2000: Educate America 
Act''

 April 21, 1993

To the Congress of the United States:

    I am pleased to transmit today for your immediate consideration and 
enactment the ``Goals 2000: Educate America Act.''
    This legislation strives to support States, local communities, 
schools, business and industry, and labor in reinventing our education 
system so that all Americans can reach internationally competitive 
standards, and our Nation can reach the National Education Goals. Also 
transmitted is a section-by-section analysis.
    Education is and always has been primarily a State responsibility. 
States have always been the ``laboratories of democracy.'' This has been 
especially true in education over the past decades. The lessons we have 
learned from the collective work of States, local education agencies, 
and individual schools are incorporated in Goals 2000 and provide the 
basis for a new partnership between the Federal Government, States, 
parents, business, labor, schools, communities, and students. This new 
partnership is not one of mandates, but of cooperation and leadership.

    The ``Goals 2000: Educate America Act'' is designed to promote a 
long-term direction for the improvement of education and lifelong 
learning and to provide a framework and resources to help States and 
others interested in education strengthen, accelerate, and sustain their 
own improvement efforts. Goals 2000 will:

<bullet>    Set into law the six National Education Goals and establish 
            a bipartisan National Education Goals Panel to report on 
            progress toward achieving the goals;
<bullet>    Develop voluntary academic standards and assessments that 
            are meaningful, challenging, and appropriate for all 
            students through the National Education Standards and 
            Improvement Council;
<bullet>    Identify the conditions of learning and teaching necessary 
            to ensure that all students have the opportunity to meet 
            high standards;
<bullet>    Establish a National Skill Standards Board to promote the 
            development and adoption of occupational standards to ensure 
            that American workers are among the best trained in the 
            world;
<bullet>    Help States and local communities involve public officials, 
            teachers, parents, students, and business leaders in 
            designing and reforming schools; and
<bullet>    Increase flexibility for States and school districts by 
            waiving regulations and other requirements that might impede 
            reforms.

    Though voluntary, the pursuit of these goals must be the work of our 
Nation as a whole. Ten years ago this month, A Nation At Risk was 
released. Its warnings still ring true. It is time to act boldly. It is 
time to rekindle the dream that good schools offer.

[[Page 644]]

    I urge the Congress to take prompt and favorable action on this 
legislation.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
April 21, 1993.