[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 31 (Monday, August 6, 2001)]
[Page 1129]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Congressional Leaders on Education 
Reform Legislation

August 2, 2001

    Listen, thank you all for coming. It's my honor to meet with the 
Senate conferees and the chairman of the Education Committee in the 
House and, of course, the Secretary of Education to discuss the 
Conference Committee on Education and the education reform package and 
how best to--what I can do to help move the bill and to work with the 
Members to get a--to continue the spirit of reform that was a part of 
the Senate bill and the House bill.
    Today one of the things that I hope the Nation notices is that the 
NAEP is out, the national assessment statistics. And one of the things--
one of the powerful statistics is that States that use strong 
accountability systems, States that measure, States that say every child 
could matter are the States that perform best when it comes to teaching 
children the basic skills, in this case, math. It so happened to be that 
one of those States was Texas; the other was North Carolina.
    But it is a strong message to the advocates for reform who sit here 
in the Oval Office, strong message for the Members who doubt whether or 
not accountability is important, that accountability is crucial for 
reform. And after all, we're all united in making sure every child can 
learn in America and no child, not one child is left behind.
    So I want to thank the Members for coming. I'm hopeful that we can 
get a bill on my desk as soon as possible. I know that's the intent of 
the two chairmen. And when I do--when it is, and when I sign it, it will 
be really good for the public education of the country.
    Thank you all for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 2:51 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to NAEP, the National Assessment of 
Education Progress. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.