[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 2 (Monday, January 14, 2002)]
[Pages 32-36]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts

January 8, 2002

    Thank you all very much. Thank you, please. You know, I told the 
folks at the coffee shop in Crawford, Texas, that Ted Kennedy was all 
right. [Laughter] They nearly fell out. [Laughter] But he is. I've come 
to admire him. He's a smart, capable Senator. You want him on your side, 
I can tell you that. And as a result of his hard work, we put together a 
good piece of legislation that has put Republicans and Democrats on the 
side of the schoolchildren in America. And Senator, thank you very much 
for your leadership.
    On September the 11th, my wife was heading to--was on Capitol Hill 
to testify in front of Senator Kennedy. And before she'd go testify in 
front of his committee, obviously the evildoers hit America. And I want 
to thank him publicly, in front of his home folks, for providing such 
comfort to Laura during

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an incredibly tough time. Ironically enough, Judd Gregg was there, as 
well, and both those men went out of their way to put their arm around 
Laura and let her know all would be right. So, Mr. Senator, not only are 
you a good Senator; you're a good man.
    Speaking about September the 11th, I want the young folks here to 
know that the mission we are on to rid the world of terror is a noble 
and just mission. I long for peace. But we learned a terrible lesson, 
and that lesson is we must rout out terror wherever it exists, in order 
for you and your children to grow up in a free and peaceful society. 
This Nation will not tire; we will not rest until we bring those who are 
willing to harm Americans to justice. And that's exactly what we intend 
to do.
    We have a job to do overseas, and our military is performing 
brilliantly. For those of you who have got relatives in the military or 
those of you who are in the military, thank you from the bottom of our 
Nation's collective heart.
    And we've got a job to do here at home, as well, and that's to make 
sure every child in America--every child--receives a good education.
    Senator Kennedy and I, on the way in here, were talking about the 
Latin School. And I want to thank the headmistress Kelley for having us 
here. Thank you very much. After he had finished the litany of all the 
Kennedys that had gone to school here--[laughter]--we talked about the 
quality of education that the kids receive here. And the truth of the 
matter is, if you look at this bill that I signed this morning in Ohio, 
it says this is the way--this is Boston Latin all over again. This is 
what Boston Latin is about. It's about expecting high standards, 
understanding every child can learn, demanding the best, insisting upon 
hard work, rewarding success, solving failure. It is a great school, and 
I am grateful that I could come and herald the signing of an important 
piece of legislation here at this school. This is not only a testimony 
to Senator Ted Kennedy's hard work; it's a testimony to a fine public 
school. Thank you for having us.
    I appreciate the Governor coming, and I know the Governor is 
committed to quality education, as well. Jane, thank you for being here. 
I'm honored that members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation 
came. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come by 
and say hello. I appreciate so very much the mayor being here. Mr. 
Mayor, thank you for coming; it's good to see you again. I want to thank 
all of you for coming. I particularly want to thank the students who are 
here.
    I--you're seeing Government at its best with this piece of 
legislation. I know there's a lot of folks who look at Washington and 
say, ``Can't they ever get along? All they do is argue. All they do is 
call each other names.'' But on this piece of legislation, on this 
important piece of legislation, we figured out how to put our parties 
aside and focus on what's right for the American children. We showed the 
country that, if we so desire, it is possible in Washington to say the 
Nation matters more than our political parties matter.
    That was not as easy as it sounds. [Laughter] It took a lot of hard 
work, and it took the leadership of four fine Americans who are on this 
stage with me today. These four people decided they would rather see 
results than have empty rhetoric dominate the scene. These people said, 
``Look, we disagree on some issues, but why don't we figure out where we 
agree and get something done.'' And it was in that spirit that we 
crafted a great piece of legislation.
    Big George Miller is out of California. He is--he might be 
considered left in Massachusetts. [Laughter] What do you think, 
Congressman? [Laughter] That's saying something. [Laughter] Before I 
went to Washington, I had a group of the gentlemen come down to Austin 
to talk about education reform, and George and I had a discussion about 
making sure that the systems did not simply shuffle children through, 
that we wanted to call a halt to what some call social promotion. I knew 
right then and there, when I heard his passion about focusing on each 
child, that there was a potential ally when it came to writing good 
legislation.
    And then Boehner from Ohio showed up. He did a fabulous job, by the 
way. I signed the bill this morning in his district to really express my 
gratitude and the Nation's gratitude for his leadership on shepherding 
this

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bill through the House of Representatives. Without John Boehner, without 
George Miller, this bill never would have made it throughout the House, 
and I want to thank them both from the bottom of my heart.
    And then there's the Kennedy-Gregg alliance. [Laughter] It was 
amazing that it worked, but it did. And the truth of the matter is, the 
bill wouldn't have gotten out of the Senate had not Senator Kennedy and 
Judd Gregg put their minds to it. This bill could have easily have 
stalled. It was a convenient time for people to say, ``Well, we'd better 
not move anything out of the Senate because there's a war.'' But Ted 
Kennedy and Judd Gregg went to their respective caucuses and demanded 
action. And as a result, the bill came to the Senate floor, passed 
overwhelmingly, and I had the honor of signing it this morning.
    I wish you could have seen the piece of legislation. It's really 
tall. And I admit, I haven't read it yet. [Laughter] You'll be happy to 
hear I don't intend to. [Laughter] But I know the principles behind the 
bill, and I want to describe some of them to you.
    First, this bill says that we will hold people accountable for 
results. It says, in return for receiving Federal money, States must 
design accountability systems to measure--to determine whether or not 
children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. In return 
for Federal money, the State of Massachusetts or the State of Texas or 
any other State in the Union must develop an accountability system to 
let us know whether children in grades three-through-eight are meeting 
standards. It basically says, every child can learn. And if they're not 
learning, we want to know early, before it is too late.
    Now, I've heard them say, ``Well, tests--we're testing too much.'' 
If you don't like to take a test, too bad, because we need to know. We 
need to know whether you're learning.
    I read a quote from a little girl from New York the other day that 
touched my heart, and I hope it touches yours. She said, ``I don't 
remember taking exams. They just kept passing me along. I ended up 
dropping out in the seventh grade. I basically felt no one cared.'' 
Well, she was--she's blowing the whistle on what happens in some of our 
schools in America.
    You see, sometimes it's easy to walk into a classroom and say, 
``Certain children can't learn. Therefore, let's just move them through. 
Let's don't test them. Let's just push them out at the end.'' And that's 
wrong in America. Every child matters; every child should be diagnosed 
on whether or not they can read and write and add and subtract. And if 
they can't, we need to correct their problems early, before it's too 
late. The cornerstone of reform is strong accountability measures, just 
like you do here in the State of Massachusetts.
    Secondly, in order for reform to mean anything, there must be 
consequences. Something must happen if there's failure. Now in this 
bill, it says schools will be given time to correct. After posting the 
test scores and mailing out the report cards that show mediocrity or 
failure, schools will still be given a chance to correct the problems. 
And therefore, we provide incentives and resources to make sure that 
failing schools have got the opportunity to meet standards.
    But if they don't, the consequence is that parents must be empowered 
to make different choices. We must not trap children in schools that 
will not teach and will not change. And so, therefore, this bill says 
parents in failed schools can send their children to another public 
school or charter school or be able to get tutoring for their children 
in either the public or private sector. It is important to free families 
from failure in public education, and that's what this bill does.
    The third principle--it says that we trust the local people to make 
the right decisions for the schools. It says we trust the Governors and 
the school boards to design the path to excellence for every child. It 
says Washington has a role of providing money, and now Washington is 
demanding results. But Washington should not micromanage the process. 
And so, this bill provides a lot more flexibility for the local folks. 
In essence, it says the people of Boston care more about the children of 
Boston than people in Washington, DC.
    Rod Paige understands that. The reason I picked Rod to become the 
Secretary of

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Education is because he was the superintendent of schools in the Houston 
Independent School District. He knows what it means to run a school 
district. And when we implement this bill, I can assure you, Rod is 
going to make sure that the spirit of ``no child is left behind'' is a 
part of the regulations. But this bill says there--one size doesn't fit 
all when it comes to public schools. It fosters change by pushing power 
to the lowest level, and that is at the local school districts, which 
should make the teachers in this audience feel good.
    First of all, I want to thank all the teachers who are here. Yours 
is a noble profession, and thank you for taking on this tough job. But a 
system that devolves power says we've got to trust the teachers and 
principals to make the right decisions in the classrooms. And that's 
what this bill says.
    This bill also wages a battle against illiteracy. It recognizes that 
spending money is important, but you need to spend money effectively in 
order to make a difference. We've spent a lot of money in education--a 
lot. And a lot of it hasn't made a difference. Well, one area where 
we're going to make a difference from this point forward in America is 
in reading--teaching every child to read.
    The numbers for inner-city kids or impoverished--kids from 
impoverished families--their ability to read, or the illiteracy rate--
let me put it to you that way--is astounding. It is pitiful. It is not 
right for America that over 60 percent of the children in the fourth 
grade from impoverished families cannot read. If you can't read in the 
fourth grade, you're not going to read in the eighth grade. And if you 
can't read in the eighth, you're not going to read in high school. And 
if you can't read, you've got a tough life ahead of you.
    And we need to do something about it, America, and this bill does. 
It triples the amount of money for early reading programs, programs 
based upon the science of reading, not something that sounds good or 
feels good but something that works. There's money for teacher training. 
There's money for enhanced methodology. There's money that says we're 
going to stay focused until we teach every child to read by the third 
grade in America.
    So those are the principles of a good bill. The bill is not only 
good for education, but it's a good go-by to show what can happen in 
Washington. And that's why the five of us--or the six of us, including 
Rod Paige--have been traveling around the Nation today, heralding the 
success--the joint success-- the success of people from both political 
parties in both Houses of Congress. It shows what is possible when 
people say, ``I want to get something done.''
    I know what's possible when it comes to educating children. You've 
seen it here in your own State, how the numbers have improved 
dramatically. It starts with an attitude that says public education is 
crucial; every child can learn; and we must set high standards. And 
that's what we've got to do in America, it seems like, all over the 
country.
    After 9/11, a lot of people have asked, ``What can I do to help? How 
can I make a difference in America?'' Well, my advice is, first, love 
your children like you've never loved them before. Show them that 
they're the most important people in the world. But a way you can help 
America is to mentor a child, to teach a child to read. You can make 
sure your kids turn off your TV and read. You can make sure that you 
support the public school in your neighborhood. You can make sure you 
thank a teacher. You can help by going into classrooms, to make a 
difference.
    If you're really interested in how to help fight terrorists, if you 
want to make sure that the terrorists aren't able to affect the heart 
and soul of America, support your public schools. Insist upon the best; 
demand accountability, because every child in America can learn. And 
when they do, this country is going to be a heck of a lot better off.
    Thank you for letting me come. May God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 5:17 p.m. in the Roache Gymnasium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Cornelia A. Kelley, head master, Boston Latin 
School; Gov. Jane Swift of Massachusetts; and Mayor Thomas M. Menino of 
Boston.

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