    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 36 (Monday, September 8, 1997)]
    [Pages 1273-1274]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    The President's Radio Address

    August 30, 1997

        Good morning. This week a record number of American children will be
    heading back to school, reminding us of our greatest obligation, to
    prepare our children for the 21st century. We can't do that without a
    commitment to educational excellence for all those children, expecting
    them to meet high standards and testing to see if they do.
        In my State of the Union Address, I challenged every State to adopt
    high national standards of academic excellence, defining what every
    child should learn, and by 1999, to join in a national test for all
    fourth graders in reading and all eighth graders in math, to ensure they
    have mastered these basics.
        We know that challenging our students to achieve excellence works.
    This week, the College Board announced that SAT math scores continue to
    rise; and today, the National Assessment for Education Progress, the
    organization that issues what we call the Nation's report card,
    announced that in recent years we have improved math and science
    performance at every age level. Most exciting, more high schoolers are
    taking challenging courses and college-level courses.
        Still, we all know we have more to do to improve our schools and to
    raise learning levels for all of our students. I've been working to
    improve education for nearly 20 years now, and I am convinced we can
    give our children the education they need to thrive in the 21st century
    only by setting high standards and by challenging students, teachers,
    parents, and principals to meet them. National standards will help us to
    upgrade curricula, improve teaching, and target students and schools who
    need assistance.
        I'm pleased that Governors and mayors from all over the country,
    business leaders and educators from States and cities, big and small,
    people of both parties, are joining in this effort. We're working to
    make sure this doesn't become a partisan issue.
        Some people worry that the Federal Government would play too large a
    role in developing the test. To meet that concern, I have instructed my
    staff to rewrite our proposal to make sure these tests are developed not
    by the Department of Education but by an independent, bipartisan board
    created by Congress many years ago. This will make sure these tests
    measure what they should, nothing more, nothing less.
        Still, there are some in Congress who, even as our children are
    heading back to school, are working to undermine the very progress in
    education our children are counting on. They have proposed an amendment
    that would prevent us from developing a common test for math and reading
    and, therefore, would prevent your school district or your State or your
    child from choosing to take the test. That means you won't be able to
    find out if your child's school is meeting world-class standards.
        The arguments they're using are the very same ones we've heard for
    years now. They amount to a determination to avoid accountability. Some
    say we shouldn't pay for test development even though it's being done by
    an independent body. Some say the test will be misused, even though
    participation is voluntary and is clearly designed to show how students
    and schools are doing and to show the way toward improving them.
        Some say it's unfair to poor kids and kids of immigrant parents,
    even though many big-city school districts, including those in six of
    seven of our largest cities, say they want to be a part of the test and
    the national standards movement even if their States don't.
        The fact is high standards are essential to providing our children
    the best education in the world, and I intend to do whatever is
    necessary to make sure we move forward.
        The 21st century will be a time of remarkable opportunity. With high
    national edu

    [[Page 1274]]

    cation standards, we can make sure all our children have the education
    they need to seize these opportunities. Without them, our children will
    continue to pay for our own low expectations and our own limited vision
    for them. Our children, our schools, our future are far too important to
    be anything less than world class. Let us move forward into the 21st
    century with high standards, and make sure we meet them.

    Note: The address was recorded at 6:04 p.m. on August 29 at a private
    residence at Martha's Vineyard, MA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on
    August 30.