[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 10 (Monday, March 11, 2002)]
[Pages 339-344]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie

March 4, 2002

    Thank you for that warm welcome. It's nice to be here at the home of 
the Screaming Eagles. They tell me you've got a good football team and a 
good high pom squad. But I'm really not interested in talking about 
athletics. I'm here because of the achievements, the academic 
achievements of the students, the quality of the teaching, and the 
involvement of the parents. I'm here because this is one of America's 
finest public schools.
    I believe strongly in the hope and promise of the public school 
system all across America. And I know how important it is to thank our 
teachers, to thank those who come to your classrooms every day, to wish 
them the best, and to herald such a noble and important profession for 
the future of our country. I'm here to talk about teaching and its 
responsibilities and how our country can do a better job of supporting 
America's teachers. I know--look, I am sure a lot of you are out there 
saying, ``The guy is still talking about teaching. I really get tired of 
seeing my teacher''--[laughter]--``particularly at test time.'' 
[Laughter] Trust me, you're going to miss your teachers. They're an 
important part of your life, and they're an important part of our 
country's future.
    I really want to thank the--[applause]--I just had a meeting with a 
group of teachers from all over the area, and I want to thank them for 
being there to share some thoughts about how to make sure the school 
systems work as good as they possibly can. I want to thank Jeff, your 
school's principal, for, gosh, opening up this huge facility and 
inviting so many people here. I want to thank the superintendent of 
schools, Bill Gaslin. I want to thank my friend Mark Yudof from the 
University of Minnesota, who understands that--[applause]. About seven 
people appreciate you, Mark. [Laughter] I want to thank--the reason 
Mark--I want to herald Mark is that he understands that in order for a 
teacher to be able to teach, the teacher colleges have got to teach a 
curriculum that actually works in the classroom. And I appreciate his 
leadership.
    I want to thank members of the U.S. congressional delegation, 
Gutknecht and Kennedy and Ramstad, for being here as well. Thank you all 
for coming. I want to thank my friend Norm Coleman, former mayor of St. 
Paul, Minnesota. Mary Kiffmeyer, the secretary of state, is here as 
well; thank you, Mary. And Christine Jax, the education commissioner of 
Minnesota, is here too. Thank you all for coming.
    Before I talk about the importance of education and teaching, I do 
want to talk to the students about my desire to defend freedom, to try 
to put some context to what's taking place overseas into your life.
    You know, I'm sure it must have been troubling for high school 
seniors to turn on their TV--or high school juniors or sophomores, for 
that matter--to see America under attack. When we grew up, the baby 
boomers and everybody else, we never really thought we'd be attacked. I 
mean, the last thing that I entered my mind when I was getting out of 
high school in 1964 is that an enemy would attack America. And yet, here 
you are graduating from high school, the first high school class to ever 
have seen the 48 contiguous States attacked by an enemy.

[[Page 340]]

    And you're probably wondering, why would somebody hit us? And it's 
because we love freedom. There are people in the world who cannot stand 
a free society. There are people who do not believe that you should be 
able to worship freely. There are people who do not believe you should 
be able to speak freely. There are people who do not believe that young 
women should be educated. And when they find a nation that's willing to 
defend freedom, they try to attack it.
    And when they attacked us, they thought we were soft and 
materialistic. They thought our Nation had no fiber and no courage. They 
fell prey to images of a selfish American--a selfish America. And my, 
did they make a huge mistake, because this nation will defend ourselves 
and freedom at any price. It is too precious a gift--it is too precious 
a gift for future generations to give up to terrorists.
    You know, I laid out an initiative that said, you're either with us, 
or you're against us; either you stand with America to defend freedom, 
so that you can grow up and your children can grow up in a society, in a 
civilized world that values individual freedoms. And most nations of the 
world chose to be with us. And for that, our Nation is grateful.
    I also said that if you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, 
if you try to encourage a terrorist, you're just as guilty as those who 
murdered thousands of innocent Americans. And the Taliban has found out 
exactly what we meant.
    I am so proud of our United States military. Many of you who have 
got relatives in the military, you need to tell them how proud I am of 
their service and of their sacrifice and of their dedication.
    We went into Afghanistan not as conquerors but as liberators. It's 
hard for you to believe, I'm certain, that Afghanistan, when it was 
taken over by the Taliban--a government that sponsored terrorism, that 
allowed Al Qaida killers to hide and train in their country--would not 
allow young girls to go to school. It's hard for any American to 
understand how barbaric this regime was. We didn't go in as conquerors. 
We went in as liberators, and now women and children are free from the 
clutches of these barbaric people.
    People say, ``Well, how long is this going to last?'' And the answer 
is, for however long it takes to make sure America is secure. People 
say, ``Well, the hard part is over with.'' And my answer is, ``No. It's 
not.'' We're just beginning--as we learned recently that there's an Al 
Qaida--a group of Al Qaida killers in a mountainous region in 
Afghanistan. And when we find them bunched up and we find where they 
are, you can rest assured the United States and our coalition are going 
to hunt them down, that these are people that, if we allow to go free, 
could easily come back and harm the American citizens.
    And so we sent teams in--and there is some serious combat as I 
speak--and lives are lost. And we send our prayers and tears to those 
whose families have lost life. But I want to assure the students who are 
here and the loved ones of those military, defending freedom is a noble 
cause, and it is a just cause. And so long as I am the President of the 
United States, I will pursue those who want to hurt America and who want 
to take away our freedoms.
    I'm confident that over time, we'll prevail. I'm confident that this 
mighty Nation has got the patience and the determination and the will to 
succeed. And when we do, the world will be better off.
    And I'm confident that we can do what we need to do here at home to 
make sure every child is educated. It is so important that we achieve 
that objective. I was fortunate enough to be the President at a time 
when the people in Congress realized that--maybe with a little bit of my 
persuasion--that we needed to reform our school system. And I signed an 
historic reform bill. It was one of those wonderful moments in 
Washington where a group of us put aside our party politics--said, 
``It's okay to be a Republican; it's okay to be a Democrat. But what's 
most important is to function on what's best for America.'' And we got a 
bill done.
    It's a good piece of education reform that says that in America, we 
believe in educating every child--each and every child--and that we must 
bring high hopes and high standards to every school and every 
neighborhood all across America.

[[Page 341]]

    As a result of this bill, parents will know whether their child or 
their child's school is succeeding in meeting that ambitious goal, 
because schools will have to test and publish the results. From now on, 
teaching reading will be the first priority of every elementary school 
in America.
    My friend Phyllis Hunter put it best: The new civil right in America 
is teaching every single child to read. And from now on, schools in low-
income neighborhoods will have the same high expectations as everybody 
else.
    These reforms were passed in Washington, but the success of the 
reform will ultimately come down to the teacher in the classroom. There 
are a lot of really great teachers in America. I know you've got a lot 
of really great teachers here. But we want to make sure there is a great 
teacher in every classroom. And it starts by making sure that teachers 
coming out of teacher schools know how to teach the subjects that 
they're going to take into the classroom.
    Interestingly enough, now, about 35 States require new teachers to 
take an exit exam--an entrance exam into the teaching profession to make 
sure that they can pass the test in the subject they teach. Sometimes, 
the standard is so low that all you have to do is answer half the 
questions, and you're in. That doesn't make sense to me, and you know, 
it doesn't make sense to good teachers. Teachers want their profession 
to have the highest of high standards. And so in order to make sure 
every school has got a teacher, we're going to work with the States to 
make sure that the exit exams, those exams for teachers being--going 
into the teaching ranks, exiting college, have high standards, that they 
can pass a test in the subject they're going to teach, and that every 
teacher be licensed or certified.
    Every public school teacher in America must demonstrate competence 
in his or her field of instruction. If we want to have a teaching 
profession that is held in high regard, we must have confidence in the 
teacher colleges and those coming into the teacher ranks that they can 
do the job expected of them. We owe it to the parents, and most of all, 
we owe it to the students.
    We also understand what a good teacher can accomplish in a young 
life. Our new economy demands higher and higher skills, and good 
teachers provide those skills. But it's only one part of the teacher's 
job. Just as life is more than a race to the riches--and life should be 
more than a race to the riches--education is more than a search for 
skills. Look, you probably have already forgotten the isosceles triangle 
or photosynthesis. [Laughter] But hopefully you did learn how to try 
hard and how to work hard and how to take pride in your work, exactly 
what your teachers are teaching you. You learn to study, and you learn 
to communicate, and you learn to appreciate the living truth of history 
and literature. A good teacher instills a sense of your own 
possibilities, along with your willingness to respect other people.
    We ask a lot of our teachers. We expect them to teach knowledge and 
skills. We expect them to welcome measurement and accountability. We 
expect them to have sound character, and we expect them to teach by 
example.
    And the teachers have a right to expect certain things in return. 
They have a right to expect every child will come to school ready to 
learn and that good manners and respect for teachers will be taught at 
home. And that's the responsibility of moms and dads. After all, a 
parent is a child's first teacher. And when the children show up for 
school, they should already know the basics of good manners and good 
discipline.
    Teachers are also entitled to expect some things from government. As 
we raise the expectations of our schools, we must give our schools the 
tools to succeed. As we ask more of our teachers, we must take their 
side. We must be their allies, and all of us, all around America, must 
give them the support they need to do their jobs.
    My administration is supporting teachers in getting the training 
they need to raise educational standards. We have appropriated nearly $3 
billion made available to States to recruit, to prepare, and to train 
teachers. That is more than a 35 percent increase over last year's 
budget. This is the greatest Federal commitment to quality teachers and 
principals. And it's important, and it's necessary if we're going to 
achieve the reforms

[[Page 342]]

inherent in the No Child Left Behind bill. Much of the training will 
focus on specific needs, like special education and math and science 
instruction and early reading.
    The truth of the matter is, if we don't teach the children to read, 
they're not going to understand math and science. We have got to make 
sure our elementary school teachers have the skills and tools necessary 
to teach every child in America how to read. And that means starting in 
preschool, and that means making sure that the preschool teachers know 
what works.
    And that's why I heralded Mark Yudof. Listen, reading is a science. 
Mark said, ``Well, explain what you mean by `reading is a science.' '' 
That means, teach what works. We know what works. Some reading programs 
sound good, but they don't work. Let's use curriculum that actually 
works. Phonics works, and it needs to be an integral part of the reading 
curriculum all around America.
    And so one of the things we're doing is setting up a clearinghouse 
of the most recent and reliable information on what works so that 
districts and teachers can access information and, if need be, change 
curriculum so that standards are met and no children are simply shuffled 
through the school system because they may seem to be hard to educate.
    So there's money in the budget for training, retention, and 
recruitment, and we'll also support teachers by welcoming more talent 
and experience into the ranks. Over the next decade, school districts 
will need to hire 2.2 million teachers. And we must recruit new 
teachers. And we must remind people, if you're looking for something to 
do that will have an incredible impact on people's lives, think about, 
when you go to college, getting a teacher's certificate; think about 
going into the classroom. It is such a noble and important profession.
    But there are also other ways to attract. For example, I'm a strong 
supporter, as is the administration, for a program called Teach for 
America, which recruits and trains outstanding college graduates to 
teach for at least 2 years in our neediest public schools. We're 
increasing funding for a program called Transition for Teaching, a 
program that puts professionals like lawyers and accountants and 
scientists into public school classrooms and give them the teacher 
training they need. I'm also committed to expanding a great program 
called Troops to Teachers, which encourages military personnel, upon 
retirement, to get into the classroom, to bring the skills they have 
learned in the defense of the United States to the children of the 
United States. These are programs all aimed at recruiting people, 
encouraging people, and giving people the skills necessary to enjoy one 
of life's most noble professions, teaching children.
    My administration will support teachers who are committed to 
educating disadvantaged students. Education--education is the surest way 
out of poverty. Children who live in low-income neighborhoods can 
succeed, absolutely, but they need people willing to teach them. Many 
schools in high-poverty areas are having trouble finding--filling the 
teacher vacancies. So we'll help them by expanding student loan 
forgiveness for teachers willing to teach math, science, and special 
education in these schools for at least 5 years. Right now our 
Government forgives up to $5,000 in student loans. If someone is willing 
to teach math, science, or special ed in a school that is having trouble 
recruiting teachers, then we ought to forgive up to $17,500 in student 
loans.
    I just met with Patrick Pelini. He's an English teacher at Patrick 
Henry High School in Minneapolis. Here's what he said. He said that low-
income students are hungry to be taught. He said that mentoring and 
teaching students in his school has been a tremendously gratifying 
experience for Patrick. Let me tell you something: This guy is 
committed. He is a solid citizen of your State. He is focused and 
dedicated on making sure every child gets educated. If he had any 
student loans, they ought to be forgiven.
    But the next Patricks ought to have their student loans forgiven, so 
that they end up teaching in these schools where it's having trouble 
recruiting teachers. It makes sense; it's good public policy. And if we 
want to make sure no child is left behind, let's encourage really 
bright, smart people to head into those schools.

[[Page 343]]

    We will support our teachers by allowing them to enforce discipline 
in the classrooms. So behave yourself. [Laughter]
    Albert Shanker said this--he was a great advocate for teachers--he 
said, ``The amount of disruption in our schools is much larger than it 
needs to be because it's tolerated.'' He knew that learning only takes 
place in an atmosphere of order, and for the sake of the teachers, we 
must make sure they're in charge of their classrooms. And we took a huge 
step in that direction in the new bill I signed.
    And it's because of this--many teachers are wary of imposing 
discipline, because they might be sued. Somebody might file a lawsuit 
against them. Well, because of what we call the teacher protection law, 
teachers and principals and other school professionals can take 
reasonable actions to maintain order and discipline in the classroom 
without the fear of being hauled into court. We are taking frivolous 
lawsuits out of the learning process and empowering teachers to be able 
to maintain order in their classrooms. America is going to be a lot 
better off for this law I signed, and so will the teaching profession.
    One of the interesting initiatives that I hope Congress passes is 
this one: Committed teachers oftentimes have to buy supplies for their 
students out of their own pocket. The average across the Nation is $400 
per teacher. And yet they cannot deduct that from their income taxes. 
Look, if a business person can take somebody out to lunch and deduct it, 
teachers ought to be allowed to deduct the supplies they purchase for 
their classrooms.
    And finally, I understand that all wisdom isn't in Washington, DC. 
As a matter of fact--there is some wisdom there. [Laughter] But if 
you're interested in quality education, if you really want to make a 
huge difference in making sure the public schools meet the high 
standards and high objectives, you've got to trust the local people to 
make the right decisions for the schools. You've got to trust the 
parents and teachers and principals and school board members in order to 
chart the path for excellence.
    And part of that means giving school districts and States the 
flexibility to spend Federal money on what they need the most. Some 
districts will provide incentives for new teachers. If you're having 
trouble attracting a teacher, you can use your Federal monies to attract 
teachers. Some will want to spend more money on teacher development. 
Many districts may want to use it to increase teacher pay. Flexibility 
with Federal money will help local folks meet the needs in order to 
chart the path for excellence, so every child learns.
    And so in Washington, we're working to enhance the professionalism 
of the teacher ranks and in reminding America what a noble profession 
teaching is. We talk about teacher training and teacher recruitment and 
teacher authority and local control of schools.
    I want the teachers here to know how much I respect what you do and 
how I appreciate the effort and care and compassion you show on a daily 
basis. One of the young teachers in there said, ``You know, I decided 
that I wanted to teach instead of trying to get rich.'' That attitude is 
a fabulous attitude for America. It's really what I think is going to 
come out of this attack by the evil people. I think we're all beginning 
to take a hard look at the value of life, why we're here on the face of 
the Earth.
    You know, today we've got a guy named Will Gove with us. Will is 
right here. Let me tell you something about Will. Can I say your age? 
Eighty-three, World War II vet, social entrepreneur. Here's a guy--I 
think he said he could sit around the 19th hole drinking martinis if he 
wanted to. [Laughter] Was it martinis or beer? Anyway, instead, he 
builds soccer fields. Instead, he reads newspaper articles so that blind 
folks can get the news. Instead, he is a mentor. Instead, this guy is a 
soldier in the army of compassion, which exists all across America.
    Will, I want to thank you for your example, for your living example 
of someone who puts his heart and soul into making our community a 
better place, someone who understands that you ought to love somebody 
just like you want to be loved yourself, that a complete life is one 
that is much greater than simple materialism.
    The enemy hit us. They thought we were a materialistic society. But 
they didn't know we were made up of Wills. They didn't know,

[[Page 344]]

truly, what the fabric of our country was made out of.
    You know, one of the things that I hear a lot of youngsters asking 
is, ``What can I do in the war against terror? What can I do to be a 
part of my Nation's efforts to defend freedom?'' Well, let me tell you 
what you can do. You can make somebody's life better off. You can walk 
into a shut-in's house on a daily basis and say, ``What can I do to help 
you?'' You can mentor a child. You can go to your church or your 
synagogue or your mosque, and you can put together a food drive. You can 
make somebody's life better. In order to stand up in the face of evil, 
you can do something good. It's the millions of acts of kindness and 
decency and compassion that define America and stand strong in the face 
of evil.
    USAfreedomcorps.gov is a place where you can go if you're interested 
in serving somebody greater than yourself, a cause greater than 
yourself, to help somebody in need. If you want to figure out some way 
to enrich your life, think about being a teacher, or think about 
following the example of Will. If you want to do something, think about 
my friend Mary Copeland, who runs a prayer service, who understands the 
importance of faith in people's lives. With faith in people's lives, you 
can kick drugs and alcohol, and you can realize a better tomorrow.
    What I'm saying to the students is, you're fortunate enough to live 
in a great nation, a nation not defined by its Government but a nation 
defined by values that we hold dear and a nation defined by the hearts 
and souls of decent and loving and caring people. I'm proud of our 
country. I'm optimistic of our future. And I'm honored to be the 
President of the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.
    God bless you all. Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:12 p.m. in the Activities Center. In his 
remarks, he referred to Jeff Ireland, principal, Eden Prairie High 
School; Bill Gaslin, superintendent of schools, Eden Prairie School 
District 272; Mark G. Yudof, president, University of Minnesota; Phyllis 
Hunter, consultant, Texas Reading Initiative; and Mary Jo Copeland, 
founder and director, Sharing and Caring Hands.