[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 28 (Monday, July 16, 2001)]
[Page 1019]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

July 7, 2001

    Good morning. My second working day as President, I sent to Congress 
the boldest plan to improve our public schools in a generation, a plan 
to raise educational standards for every child and to require new 
accountability from every school. This reform gives our public schools 
greater resources and insists on proven results in return, not just for 
some of our children but for all of them.
    The plan has now passed both Houses of Congress with strong margins 
and broad bipartisan support. We stand on the verge of dramatic 
improvements for America's public schools. We're increasing funding for 
public schools and insisting on results. We are maximizing local control 
to give Governors, school boards, and local people more say in their 
schools. And we are giving parents unprecedented new choices to help 
their children get a quality education.
    Yet, all of this will happen only when Congress joins with me to 
take the final, crucial step of resolving differences between the House 
and the Senate versions and sending an education reform bill to my desk.
    Across America, Governors are waiting to work with their 
legislatures to implement reform. Local school boards are eager to put 
the new flexibility my plan offers into action. We are ready to provide 
teachers with the best research on the science of reading this very 
fall. We need to act quickly, because States and schools must make 
decisions on how to use their new flexibility and live up to their new 
responsibility.
    We have come so far; we're almost there. And we must finish the job. 
Completing the work of education reform is a final exam for Congress 
before they go home in August for summer vacation and before America's 
children go back to school.
    The differences between the education reform bills that passed with 
large majorities in both House and Senate are small. Both bills call for 
strong accountability. The Senate bill gives States more flexibility. 
The House bill is more fiscally responsible and focuses Federal dollars 
where they will do the most good.
    With prompt action this month, our public schools can begin to 
implement the first of the education reforms this fall, with guidance to 
help teachers use the latest research to teach all our children to read.
    This is summer vacation for our children, and it can be a season of 
accomplishment for our Nation's leaders. I urge the Congress to act 
swiftly on my education reform plan.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 11:40 a.m. on July 5 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on July 7. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
July 6 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office of 
the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of this 
address.