[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 36 (Monday, September 7, 1998)]
[Pages 1670-1676]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks During a Roundtable Discussion on Education in Herndon

August 31, 1998

    The President. Let me just say very briefly before I move on, you 
probably know this because you talked about how your school was growing. 
But I believe, Secretary Riley, I think it was last year was the first 
year that we actually had a school class from kindergarten through high 
school bigger than the baby boom generation. And this explosion of 
children into our schools has created enormous strains on school 
districts all across America.
    I was in a school in Florida. I believe it had 17 trailers outside.
    Fairfax County Superintendent of Schools Daniel A. Domenech. We have 
that beat, Mr. President. [Laughter]
    The President. This was just one school, not a school district, and 
it was amazing. But there was an article in The Washington Post and in 
other newspapers over the weekend about the teacher shortage in America, 
and I'm very concerned about it. We have two proposals: One is to put 
35,000 teachers in the most difficult and underserved areas in the 
country--it's part of our budget--the other would put 100,000 teachers 
out there across the country in the first 3 grades, to try to keep class 
size down below 20. And I think those things are very, very important.
    One of the things I'm hoping I can do is to persuade the Congress in 
the next month to embrace the idea that we clearly have a national 
obligation now to support what is a national phenomenon, the explosion 
of the number of schoolchildren in our schools. So

[[Page 1671]]

when you say what it did, it made me want to think about that.
    I'd like to go on now to JoAnn Shackelford, because it seems to be a 
logical followup to what you said about the diversity of your student 
body and teaching people to read and this Saturday Program, which I'm 
very interested in. It sounds to me like something everybody ought to be 
doing.
    Ms. Shackelford. Thank you. First of all, I wanted to tell you, 
welcome to our school. We're so excited you're here. Miss Freeman is a 
hard act to follow, so I won't try. But I do have a few things to ask 
for. [Laughter]
    The President. Who picked this questioner? [Laughter]

[At this point, Ms. Shackelford, a reading specialist, expressed the 
faculty's conviction that students can learn to read by the third grade 
and described the Reading Recovery program, which involves additional 
teachers working with the classroom teachers to help children with 
special needs, and the Excel Saturday program, which consists of high 
school student and teacher volunteers tutoring elementary school 
children on Saturdays. Ms. Shackelford expressed the need for more 
funding to expand the programs' outreach and suggested scholarships for 
high school tutors.]

    The President. I'd just like to make a couple of observations. First 
of all, I'll think about this high school scholarship thing. The only 
high school scholarships directly for service, community service, we 
have are the ones that I announced at Penn State a couple of years ago, 
where we give a modest scholarship that's matched in the local community 
to one person for outstanding community service in high school.
    So we now have 1,000 colleges and universities providing reading 
volunteers through the America Reads program to go into schools to help 
young children learn to read, and most of them are work study students. 
But a lot of them are not eligible for work study, and they just do it 
anyway. There may be something we can do on that, and I'll think about 
it.
    The other thing I'd say is that I'm a big fan of the Reading 
Recovery program. And if you look at the research, it has about the best 
long-term results of any strategy. But there is a reason for it. It's 
very expensive, because it's so labor intensive. And it's something that 
maybe Secretary Riley wants to talk about this a little bit.
    We've discussed before that whether the generalized assistance we 
give to school districts for supportive programs like this, or the 
States, which then the school districts get, should be more focused. And 
we've tried not to sort of pick and choose among the various reading 
strategies because of the limited amount of money and the large number 
of programs underway in the country.
    But there's no question that the Reading Recovery strategy, 
particularly when you've got a lot of young people whose first language 
is not English, have had, I believe, the best long-term results, but 
it's because it's so labor intensive and is quite expensive and it's 
something we need to look at.
    Dick, you want to say anything about this?

[Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley agreed with the President and 
praised the Reading Recovery program's contribution to national 
education goals.]

    The President. Maybe we should go on now to, since we're talking 
about this subject, to Maria Gorski, who is a parent liaison. And you 
talked about involving the parents, so talk a little about that for us, 
Maria.

[Maria Gorski, liaison to parents of Spanish-speaking immigrant 
students, welcomed the President and expressed concern that many parents 
have difficulty helping their children with homework because of language 
barriers and lack of time. She asked the President to support the United 
Neighborhood program run by the Herndon Police Department, which offers 
tutoring by volunteers in the evenings.]

    The President. Thank you. How many parents volunteer in this school? 
Do you know how many?

[Principal Michele J. Freeman said there are about 500 volunteers in the 
course of a year. In addition, there are volunteers who work from home 
and send in materials for use at the school.]

[[Page 1672]]

    The President. What about the children who have both parents work 
and maybe have two jobs? How do you work out time for them to meet with 
the teachers and----

[Ms. Gorski noted such meetings usually occur on Saturdays, and she 
tries to compensate for the parents' schedules.]

    The President. What about--how does the school work? What does the 
assistant principal do to make sure that there are no fires started and 
everybody sort of shows up more or less on time and all of that? 
[Laughter]

[Assistant Principal Jude Isaacson noted the staff's dedication to 
educating and nurturing every child, its training in ``discipline-with-
dignity'' strategies, and its efforts to get to know the students' 
families through extracurricular activities. She described the school's 
counselors aiding in peer mediation and conflict resolution and offering 
classes on parenting skills. Ms. Isaacson noted the school 
administration keeps a visible and proactive presence among the 
students; she described a program that helps children set and attain 
goals and a program called ``Adopt-a-Cop,'' which involves local police 
having lunch with students and discussing safety awareness. She 
expressed pride in the school staff and their interaction with the 
community to foster discipline and safety.]

    The President. Last week, I went up to Worcester, Massachusetts and 
released there this handbook that Secretary Riley and Attorney General 
Reno did for all the schools on trying to identify children that have 
problems and trying to prevent things from happening before they go too 
far. But I tried to emphasize to them that the schools--still, schools 
are basically the safest places in the country for our kids. But when 
something goes wrong, it can be terribly tragic.
    But I think it's important that the American people know that most 
schools have people like you in them and other people who are really 
working hard to do their part to help the children grow up in a safe, 
secure environment so they can learn. And I know Secretary Riley--he 
mentioned the character education program--he's been promoting that and 
worked hard for it ever since we've been here, and I thank him.
    What about the teachers? It's about time we heard--[inaudible]----

[First grade teacher Martha Bell noted that teachers look at the 
challenges each individual student brings to the classroom and, also, 
how to communicate with the parents. She stressed the need to convince 
middle and high school students that teaching is a rewarding career and 
urged funding for those who can't afford to attend higher education.]

    The President. What's the most challenging thing that new teachers 
face--first-year teachers?

[Ms. Bell said it was a teacher's first conference with the parents, the 
development of a good rapport and the positive interaction with the 
parents.]

    The President. I could use her in any number of positions--
[laughter]--in the Federal Government. We've got an airplane strike in 
the Midwest I think you could settle--[laughter]--by tonight, and I'd 
appreciate it.
    Principal Freeman. Mr. President, she's taken. [Laughter]
    The President. But one of those parents who is sitting to your left, 
Mr. Lewis, you're the PTA president. First of all, I know this is not 
what you are going to say, but what do you do when you're not the PTA 
president, and why did you decide to do this?

[E. Tracey Lewis commended the President on his education policies. He 
told the President he works with Bill Milliken in the Communities in 
Schools program, the largest stay-in-school program in the Nation. Mr. 
Lewis stressed a citizen's obligation to the community and likened the 
Herndon Elementary School PTA to the President's theme of building 
bridges to the 21st century. He noted the PTA is about building a 
community context around the school and its students. He then outlined 
10 guiding principles that direct the PTA's decisionmaking.]

    The President. I would just like to say a couple of things and ask 
you one question. First of all, I want to thank you for your work with 
the Cities in Schools program. I brought

[[Page 1673]]

it to Arkansas with Bill Milliken probably 15 years ago, and that's a 
long time ago. Secondly, I want to thank you for your work in the PTA 
and as a father who used to be an active participant in all our school 
events, I think it's a good thing to have men as well as women be 
present. And I think that's good.
    How many members does your PTA have? How many parent members?
    Mr. Lewis. Last year, 47 percent of the parent population of Herndon 
Elementary School were members of the PTA. This year, under the able 
leadership of Mary Mann, who is our vice president for membership, we 
expect to go to scale--100 percent. [Laughter]
    The President. I'd say that's pretty good.
    Ms. Mann. We think big here.
    The President. Well, Mr. Superintendent, are all your schools like 
this? [Laughter]

[Superintendent Domenech welcomed the President and said the county has 
the Nation's 12th largest and best school system in America. He 
attributed the success to dedicated staff and community and to the 
diversity of the county's overall student body. He defined the 
challenges that confront the county as providing more facilities to 
handle overcrowding and obtaining better technology for the classroom. 
He described a program called, ``Success by Eight,'' whereby all 
students are expected to be able to read by the time they are 8 years 
old. He stressed the need for smaller class sizes to achieve that goal 
and expressed hope for assistance from the President.]

    The President. Well, let me say, I think this is a truly 
extraordinary school district. And I have done my part to promote you, 
you know, around the country. [Laughter] I always talk about what an 
amazing school district this is. Some of your schools, particular 
schools, are as diverse as any in America and a stunning array of people 
coming from different places. So I'm very impressed, and I thank you for 
what you're doing.
    I wonder if--Secretary Riley, would you like to say anything before 
I talk a little bit about the congressional agenda?

[Secretary Riley announced the availability within days of guidebooks on 
early warning signals to help detect school violence before it takes 
place. He then commended the members of the roundtable for their 
participation in the discussion.]

    The President. Didn't they do a great job?
[Applause]

[At this point, Secretary Riley introduced the President.]

    The President. The way I was prepared for this, I was supposed to go 
up there to the podium and give a little talk, and it's way too past 
that. [Laughter] We've had too much fun. But what I would like to do is 
to outline to you--there are six things that the Congress should pass 
that are in my budget that don't break the balanced budget, that are in 
our balanced budget, that they can pass or not pass in the next few days 
that I think would really help our children a lot. Five of them bear 
directly on our schools, one indirectly.
    But I'd like to just mention them so you would know, because I would 
like to see them get broad bipartisan support . I don't really believe 
we're best served when education is a partisan issue. I think we're best 
served when it's an American issue that crosses party lines.
    First of all, I have given Congress a plan for smaller classes, 
better-trained teachers, and more modern schools. Let's begin with the 
teacher shortage. You know what's acute here; it is profound in many 
places. Now, let me say one other word of introduction. There has been 
what I consider to be a legitimate question raised of me by many Members 
of Congress who say, ``Well, now, look Mr. President, you're trying to 
get the Federal Government into financing things that the Federal 
Government has never before financed. We've never been into building or 
repairing schools, for example--there are many States in this country 
where the States don't even do that, where it all has to be done at the 
local level--or putting 100,000 teachers out there for smaller classes 
in the early grades.''
    My answer is as follows: Number one, it's hard to think of a more 
important national issue. Number two, I'm not doing anything to 
interfere with the local direction of the

[[Page 1674]]

schools or the States' constitutional responsibility to set the 
framework of public education. And number three, in some places like 
this district, the level of growth, and in other places the level of 
poverty, make it simply inconceivable that they can achieve these 
objectives otherwise.
    So I think if we have the money, this is what we ought to do. But I 
want to prepare you in case any of you feel moved by the spirit to call 
or write your Congressman or Senator. [Laughter] There is a legitimate 
historic pattern here where they'll say, ``Well, you know, President 
Clinton's got a lot of energy, but he may have gone too far this time 
because the Federal Government's never done this.'' There is a reason 
we're doing it now. There's a reason we're doing it now. We have to 
prove that our elementary and secondary schools can be uniformly as 
excellent as our colleges and universities are and give all of our kids 
world-class education. And unless we do this, I am convinced there won't 
be the resources out there to get the job done.
    So let me say first of all, the teacher shortage. I've asked 
Congress to pass a plan to help school districts hire 100,000 new 
teachers, all trained, tested, and certified by State education 
authorities, targeted to smaller classes in the early grades. Again, 
where all the research shows, there are permanent gains if kids get the 
kind of individual attention they need in the early grades.
    I've also asked them to help me support better teacher training 
programs not directed by Washington, those things that all of you know 
work, all educators know work. There is not today in my opinion a 
sufficient commitment to helping teachers continue to improve their 
skills, upgrade their skills, work with other teachers, to have the time 
necessary to try to continue to improve, to avoid burnout under all the 
pressures that they're under. When I go out and talk to educators, 
there's really a lot of support for increased investment in teacher 
training. So I hope that Congress will fully fund this class size 
reduction program. It would get us down to an average of 18 children per 
class once we do it.
    The second problem is, it's hard to have a small class without a 
classroom. [Laughter] What did you call them, learning cottages? 
Learning cottages. That sounds like someplace you're sent when you 
misbehave--[laughter]--learning cottages. Anyway, so I have also 
presented a plan to help to modernize or build new, 5,000 schools. Next 
Tuesday, when I get back from my trip, the Secretary and I and others 
are going to hold school modernization days all across America to 
highlight our proposal which would provide tax credit to build or 
modernize or rebuild 5,000 public schools.
    I have been to schools in this country where whole floors were 
closed because they were so old. But they're wonderful buildings. 
Structurally, no one could afford to build such buildings today because 
of the cost of construction. But if you go to an inner-city school, for 
example, think of what message it gives a 7-year-old child to walk up 
the steps of a school where the paint's peeling off and the windows are 
broken. Think of the message you're sending your child--you want to say, 
``Oh, every child is a treasure,'' all these things that your PTA 
president said; I believe every one of them. But sometimes, the actions 
speak louder than words. You can tell those children that, but if they 
have to keep walking up steps into broken-down buildings, do they really 
think we believe it?
    The other day, I was in Philadelphia in a school--the average school 
building, the average age of school buildings in Philadelphia is 65 
years. That's the average age. Now, the good news is, those structures, 
by and large, are magnificent. The bad news is, a whole lot of them are 
in terrible shape, and I think it's a worthy investment. I think it's a 
worthy investment of our money.
    So, we want to give fast-growing districts like this one and 
districts with good structures but old, run-down buildings the chance 
they need to go forward. So that's the first: more teachers for smaller 
classes and more classes.
    Second, we want to fully fund my plan to equip our Nation's 
classrooms with computers and cutting-edge educational software and to 
train teachers to be there to make sure that the technology is properly 
used. I want to hook up every classroom and library in the entire 
country to the Internet by the year 2000 and make sure that the software

[[Page 1675]]

is good and that the teachers are trained to make the most of it. And we 
have to help you do that. You shouldn't have to fully fund that.
    Third, I want to strengthen the charter school movement. There are 
some school districts that have been greatly advanced by letting 
teachers and others get together and start new schools within the 
framework of the school district where the whole district's not 
reforming, but they want to try something new. We've got now about 
almost 1,000 of those schools out there. When I became President, there 
was only one in the whole country. When I was talking about it in 1992, 
I might have been trying to explain the theory of relativity. Everybody 
thought I was nuts. [Laughter] But now, first we had one, now we've got 
nearly 1,000, and if my budget passes, we'll have 3,000 funded by the 
year 2000.
    Fourth, I want to continue to open the doors of college to all 
Americans who will work for it by reauthorizing the Higher Education 
Act. Now, that doesn't mean anything, so let me tell you what that 
means, that reauthorization. [Laughter]
    This legislation will help more children reach their potential by 
improving teacher education. It will help struggling communities to hire 
35,000 well-qualified teachers. It will expand mentoring programs, 
something that you've already said is important to you. It will reduce 
interest rates on student loans. It will extend Pell grants and the 
Federal work-study program. We've taken it from 700,000 work-study 
positions to a million in 3 years. So these things are very important.
    You know, we have provided for lower interest rates on student 
loans, better repayment, 300,000 more work-study slots, and now tax 
credits worth about $1,500 a year for the first 2 years of college, and 
then for junior and senior year and graduate school. I am determined 
that when I leave office, no American will ever, ever walk away from 
college because of the cost. We can open the doors of college to 
everybody who is qualified, and it's important.
    Fifth, let's go back to what we were talking about on reading. We 
want to pass a bipartisan early literacy bill to help to train teachers 
and mobilize an army of volunteer tutors, because as I said, we already 
have 1,000 colleges participating in this program. And I think it's 
very, very important.
    Sixth, we have a general program to strengthen our schools that 
would expand Head Start, strengthen after-school programs for hundreds 
of thousands of children. This is a huge deal in areas with a lot of 
juvenile crime, with a lot of dangerous streets, with a lot of gangs. 
These after-school programs and summer school programs have dramatically 
reduced student problems while increasing student achievement, and I 
think that's very, very important.
    We have a special initiative aimed at Hispanic young people because 
the school dropout rate is still much higher for Hispanics than for any 
other group, largely because of language barriers and economic problems. 
And we also have in this package program I just mentioned our safe and 
drug-free schools program. We've tried to take the initiatives that we 
know work in schools like this one and make sure they are in every 
single school in America.
    Now, the bill that the House Republican majority has proposed falls 
short of these goals in every single one of these areas. But it's not 
too late. The bill has to be considered in the Senate; then both the 
Senate and the House must vote on it. So I would implore you, without 
regard to your political party, just to contact your Members of 
Congress, your Senators, and ask them to support this agenda. We have 
the money.
    We have worked hard to balance the budget. We've worked hard to show 
fiscal discipline, to get the economy going again. There is no more 
important area in which to spend the money now that we have it, and so I 
hope you will help us to do that.
    Let me just say one final thing. The Senate tomorrow takes up the 
summer jobs program. Now, that's not for this summer, but--the one we 
just passed--but for the summer about to come. It provides more than 
500,000 young people a chance to work. It is a godsend to this country. 
And because of the funding--Federal-funded summer jobs program--we have 
a lot of places which we are able then to go out and get other

[[Page 1676]]

people to put up money to expand the program. For reasons I do not 
understand, the House committee wants to disband it, and I think it 
would be a disastrous error.
    It comes up in the Senate tomorrow, and again, this is fundamentally 
an education issue, because if kids get in trouble over the summer or 
they have problems and they don't have something to do or if they need 
the money and they can't earn it, it increases the chances that they'll 
drop out. So I hope that you will also support the summer jobs program. 
The Senate is taking it up quite soon. I believe the Senate, across 
party lines, will vote to extend it, but we need help.
    So I just wanted to close by trying to close this circle here. We 
started in this roundtable talking about what you are doing to give to 
children in your charge the future they deserve and a future America 
desperately needs for them to have. But we think we have a role here if 
we're going to build those bridges to the 21st century. And I've done my 
best to define that role based on 20 years now of working with people in 
education. I think it's a good agenda. Secretary Riley and I, ourselves, 
started working together almost 20 years ago on public education. I 
guess next year will be our 20th anniversary of working together on 
these things when we were young Governors.
    I know that you know that there are things we should do, and I 
believe if we don't be harsh and political in our rhetoric, we talk 
about our children and what we know to be true of education, we can get 
a listening ear among enough thoughtful Republicans to join our 
Democrats to build a bipartisan coalition to do what the National 
Government should do to help make possible more stories like the ones 
we've heard around this table today. That is my whole goal. And I know 
that we won't have all the stories we need unless we also do our part. 
So I ask you: Whatever you can do to contact your Representatives and 
Senators, whatever you can do to make it clear that these are not 
partisan issues, these are people issues, and that our future is riding 
on it. If you can do that, I would be very grateful. And thank you for 
what you do here every day.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:45 p.m. in the gymnasium at Herndon 
Elementary School. In his remarks, he referred to William E. Milliken, 
president, Communities in Schools, Inc. (formerly, Cities in Schools, 
Inc.).