[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 21 (Monday, May 28, 2001)]
[Pages 786-788]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund
May 22, 2001
Thank you. Please be seated. That's a pretty tough act to follow.
[Laughter] Sara and I were honored this Sunday at Notre Dame. We both
received honorary degrees. She probably deserved hers more than I
deserved mine, but it was such an honor to be on the stage with her.
What a wonderful lady, such a great inspiration, and somebody who has
made a concerted effort to make a difference in people's lives. It's
really what America is about, when you think about it. I mean, the true
strength of this country are people like Sara, who are willing to say,
``Let's get something done instead of sitting idly by and looking at
depressing statistics, the statistic that not enough of our Hispanic
youngsters are going to institutions of higher learning. Let's get
something done about it, instead of hoping somebody else will pick up
the initiative and get it done.'' Sara said, ``I'm going to do it.'' And
I want to thank you all for joining and supporting the Hispanic
Scholarship Fund. It is important for our Nation's future that this fund
be whole and active and fully funded.
I want to thank my friend Rudy Beserra for being here today, as
well. Rudy--Mr. Chairman, it's good to see you, sir. And I understand
that you will be hearing from Margaret LaMontagne after I say a few
words.
Access is incredibly important. We must work as a society to extend
the American Dream to todos--to everybody. Now, it starts with making
sure youngsters understand that dream is available. And all of us need
to help on making sure people understand the dream is available and the
benefits of working hard to achieve the dream.
It also starts with making sure our public schools educate children.
I would bet--I haven't seen any studies on this, but I would fully
suspect that if a child is illiterate, relative to his or her
classmates, it diminishes hope. And the dream that we all hope for,
higher education, becomes smaller in the eyes of that child. If a person
doesn't have the capacity that we all want that person to have, I
suspect hope is in the far-distant future, if at all.
And so first things first means having an education system that
provides hope by educating children, not a system that looks at hard-to-
educate children, perhaps the ninos of the first generation whose
parents may not speak English, and say, ``Oh, it's the easiest route to
take, is just move them through the
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school system. The easiest thing for us to do is not to focus on each
child but just move them through. If they're 12, we'll put everybody
here. If they're 16, everybody goes there. And if they happen to learn
to read, fine.'' That attitude is going to change. It's going to change
by starting to ask the question around this country: What do you know?
Do you know what you're supposed to know? And if you don't know what
you're supposed to know, we as a society will come together to make sure
you do early, before it's too late.
What Margaret will discuss with you is the bill that we've proposed
here in Congress that lays out some clear principles about public
education. One is, we ought to expect high standards. That means when
people stand in front of a classroom full of Latino children, they
expect the best. They know what all of us know, particularly, Sara
knows: that if you expect the best, you get good results. If you say,
``Well, certain kids can't learn; it's too hard to teach them to speak
English''--if you lower the bar, we get lousy results. And every child
deserves better than that.
So, one of the principles is, setting high standards and realizing
every child can learn; secondly, is to pass power out of Washington to
provide maximum flexibility for local districts to be able to chart the
path to excellence for their individual school districts; and thirdly,
and the core of reform, as far as I'm concerned, is to have strong
accountability measures inherent in the school systems.
To put it more directly, if you receive Federal money to help a
child, you need to show us whether or not the children are learning. If
you received help, you show. And if you're doing the job we want you to
be doing, there will be plenty of praise. But if not, if not, if we find
out children aren't learning, something else has to happen. We cannot
continue to trap our children in schools that won't teach.
Now, we've got a couple of more initiatives that I think you'll find
interesting. One is, I believe Head Start ought to be an early reading
program, as well as the current strategy. And I think we ought to focus
on making sure children are armed with the tools necessary to become
good little readers. Unfortunately, not enough parents, or some parents,
don't read to their kids. And so the schoolchildren are behind. Well, if
we're going to have an accountability system starting in the third
grade, we need to make sure we've got enough early education to get
those children up to the starting line with every other child. And so
the budget I submitted outlines triple the amount of money available for
reading programs. Inherent in the program is K-through-2 diagnostic
testing, so that we know if little children have got reading
deficiencies, we'll correct them. The whole core of reform is--I ask the
question: Do our children know what they're supposed to know?
Now, there are some in our society who don't like the notion of
accountability, who don't like to test. And I will resist that backward
thinking with all my might, because I know what happens when you don't
hold people accountable: Children are given up on. And that's not the
American vision, as far as I'm concerned. I know it's not the American
vision as far as you're concerned, as well.
In our budget, we also focus on ways to complement the work that you
all do. We expand the monies available for Hispanic serving
institutions. And as importantly, I think you'll find that--this fact
will, I think, bring some joy to your heart--that we expand the Pell
grants available for low income and middle income students. Expanding
the Pell grants is not a way to replace what you all are doing; it's a
way to complement what you're doing. We want the--I can't say it
enough--we want the American experience to be available for every child.
And Pell grants is a good way to encourage access to higher education.
We expand the TRIO program in my budget. It's a program aimed at
focusing on keeping children in school. We believe in education savings
accounts. We give parents a tax incentive to save. And as I mentioned
before, we're focused on making sure that the public schools do their
job.
I am fixing to go talk to another group of Latino leaders about the
Faith-Based Initiative, and I want to just share some thoughts with you
about that. It's what I talked about when I was at Notre Dame, and it
ties hand in hand with what we're trying to do.
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On the one hand, we'll educate. On the other hand, we must inspire.
And governments aren't very good at inspiring. We're kind of
bureaucracies. The way to inspire a child is to convince somebody to be
a mentor. The way to inspire somebody about America and its future and
hope is for somebody to put an arm around a child and say, ``I love you
a lot. And America is meant for you, as well as anybody else.''
So we're talking about education today, but there's a different kind
of education that our society must do, as well, and that's the education
of helping somebody feel wanted.
First, our country must recognize there are some who are being left
behind, and we've got to deal with it. That means more budgets, but it
also means standing on the side of faith-based institutions who exist
because they've heard the call to love a neighbor like they would like
to be loved themselves and rally the great compassion of America.
I called on corporate America when I was at Notre Dame to do its
job. I welcome corporate America here, doing your job by providing these
scholarships. It's in your best interest to do so. It's also in our
Nation's best interest that corporate America support faith-based
programs that teach people love and compassion and hope.
Our country is a fabulous country. It is, mainly, because the people
are so great. And our country is richer because of the Hispanic
influence. I know; I came from a State that has a tremendous Hispanic
influence. And I know I shouldn't say this: I happen to think it's the
greatest State of all States, but partly because of our history and
tradition and relationships in the Hispanic community.
We are one Nation under God, which means every child--every child--
should be viewed as a precious individual. Every child should be
educated, and no child should be left behind. It is my honor to help
kick off your conference. I can't thank you enough for what you do. For
those generous souls who have contributed, thanks from the bottom of our
Nation's heart. Keep doing it. And for Sara, thank you very much for
having me a chance to come by.
God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. in the Indian Treaty Room in the
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he
referred to Sara Martinez Tucker, president and chief executive officer,
and Rudy M. Beserra, chairman, board of directors, Hispanic Scholarship
Fund.