[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 8 (Monday, March 1, 1999)]
[Pages 267-268]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

February 20, 1999

    Good morning. This weekend, Governors from all over our country are 
here in Washington to talk about the long-term challenges facing our 
Nation as we prepare to enter the 21st century. Of those challenges, 
none is more important than educating our children--all our children--to 
world-class standards. Today I want to talk about how we must work 
together at every level of government and in every community, to make 
sure our Nation's public schools are the best in the world.
    For 6 years now, improving education has been one of our highest 
priorities. Even as we have held fast to fiscal discipline, replacing an 
age of crippling budget deficits with a new era of budget surpluses, we 
have nearly doubled our investment in education and training.
    The balanced budget I sent to Washington this month strengthens that 
commitment to our children's education with even more resources to help 
States improve accountability, to build or modernize 6,000 schools,* to 
reduce class size in the early grades, to start more after-school 
programs, to connect every classroom and library to the Internet, and to 
finish the job of hiring 100,000 new highly trained teachers.
    * White House correction.
    This is an education agenda for the 21st century. But with more 
children entering school than ever before and enrollments continuing to 
rise, we know we must draw on every resource we possess to strengthen 
and improve our public schools.
    As both a former Governor and a parent, I know the greatest 
innovations in education do not start in Washington. They start in local 
schools and school districts, in community councils and parent-teacher 
groups. They start in States like North Carolina, where Governor Hunt 
has led the way to improve teacher quality, with performance assessment 
for new teachers and incentives for veteran teachers to become even more 
proficient and to become board-certified master teachers.
    They start in Michigan, where Governor Engler is supporting greater 
accountability in schools by requiring school districts to send parent 
report cards on how well their schools are doing. They start in 
Delaware, where Governor Carper is putting an end to social promotion by 
insisting that students pass State tests before they move to next 
grades. They start in Pennsylvania, where Governor Ridge is improving 
school safety with effective discipline codes. They're starting in 
States like California, where Governor Davis has called on the State 
legislature to turn around failing schools with a new accountability 
plan.
    As I have said many times, every problem in education in America has 
been solved somewhere, by somebody, in America. The trick is helping 
more communities to put those proven solutions to work in their own 
public schools. I believe the National Government has an obligation to 
help them do that.
    That's why, in my State of the Union Address, I proposed an 
ambitious new agenda to invest more of our resources in what we know is 
working and to stop investing in what doesn't. My plan will help every 
school district to take five steps that are already working in schools 
around the country, steps advocated by teachers and principals and 
parents and students themselves: ending social promotion, but investing 
more money to help students with summer school and after-school 
programs, so we don't blame students when the system fails them; 
adopting and enforcing reasonable discipline codes; giving parents 
report cards on their children's schools and giving parents and children 
more choice of schools, with charter schools and more public school 
choice; turning around or shutting down the worst performing public 
schools; and ensuring that all new teachers are trained in the subject 
they'll be teaching.
    Now, these steps are all based on proven experience. They're common 
sense. We have to make them common practice in every school district in 
America.
    All across our Nation, we're seeing a grassroots revolution in 
education, a revolution in accountability and rising expectations. This 
year we have a rare opportunity to use our new prosperity to help this 
revolution spread

[[Page 268]]

to every single school district, every classroom, every child.
    Now, some in Congress believe the National Government has no 
business helping communities to improve their schools in this way. But I 
think strengthening education is a national priority. So I urge Congress 
to help reduce class size, to modernize our school buildings, to improve 
teacher quality, to make accountability for results--ending social 
promotion, reasonable discipline codes, all these other things that I 
have advocated--make these things the law of the land. If we do this, we 
can transform our public schools. We can lift our children up. We can 
give them the education they need to make the most of their lives in an 
exciting new century.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 7:30 p.m. on February 19 in the 
Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February 
20. In his remarks, the President referred to Governors James B. Hunt, 
Jr., of North Carolina; John Engler of Michigan; Tom Carper of Delaware; 
Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania; and Gray Davis of California. The transcript 
was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on February 19 
but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.