[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 27 (Monday, July 7, 2003)]
[Pages 852-856]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the KIPP DC: KEY Academy

July 1, 2003

    Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming. Please be seated. Thanks 
for coming. I'm honored that--I'm honored you'd have me--[laughter]--
here at KIPP Academy. Susan, thanks for your hospitality.
    I know something about KIPP Academy, the network. The reason I do 
is, when I was the Governor of Texas, I went to a school in Houston that 
was called KIPP Academy. Nobody had ever heard of it. I think Steve--is 
that you back there, Steve? No, it's not. I thought Steve was here. You 
look like Steve. [Laughter] And they said--the principal--and they said, 
``Come by the school.'' And it was full of kids that were not supposed 
to be able to learn. You know, our State at that time was suffering what 
I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. Perhaps that's happening in 
places in the District as well. You see, when you lower the bar, that's 
what you get, low results. So they had labeled these kids, you know, 
unable to learn, difficult to learn.
    So I go to this KIPP Academy. And first of all, I was overwhelmed by 
the spirit of the kids, the involvement of the parents, the dedication 
of the teachers, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the principal. And 
then I said, ``Well, are you making any progress here at KIPP Academy 
with these so-called hard to educate?'' And the answer was, ``Yes. 
They're the best middle school in the city of Houston.'' The reason we 
knew is because we measured. We wouldn't have known that had we not 
measured.
    The KIPP Academy sets high standards. It's got the absolute right 
attitude for education, in my judgment. First of all, it says, ``Every 
child can learn. We refuse to condemn any child to mediocrity and 
failure. We have high standards; we have high expectations; and we're 
going to meet those high standards and high expectations with a 
curriculum which works.''
    And so I want to congratulate you, Susan, and the KIPP Academy 
entrepreneurs who are challenging mediocrity on a daily basis and 
raising standards for those who in some communities have been condemned 
to failure. Thanks for having us here, and thanks for the bright example 
you've set.
    What we're really here is to talk about how do we make sure that the 
education system works for everybody. That's why the act that we passed 
out of Congress, the law, was called the No Child Left Behind Act. And 
the reason why it was called the No Child Left Behind Act, it set out a 
goal for the country that every child deserves a good education. And it 
said no child should be left behind, which means we'd better understand 
whether any--we'd better answer the question, ``Is every child 
learning?''

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    But that wasn't the case oftentimes in America, public schools. We 
didn't know whether or not we were achieving what we expected. And so we 
passed this law. And the law basically said, in return for Federal 
dollars, the Federal Government will finally start asking the question, 
``What are the results?''--that we expect to spend money, and as a 
matter of fact, we set record levels of expenditure for elementary and 
secondary education programs and Title I programs. That's an obligation 
of the Federal Government. We met the obligation with the largest budget 
increases in our history. But instead of just spending money, we're 
starting to ask the question, ``What's happening in the classrooms.'' 
And if things are good, we want to praise the schools that are working, 
like KIPP Academy. But if we find things are lousy and children are 
being left behind, instead of just accepting the status quo, it is now 
time for our society to challenge failure. And that's what we're doing.
    And I'm proud of Washington, DC. Washington, DC, is willing to 
challenge failure and to praise success. This is not an easy issue for 
some in the political process. It is hard to take on the established 
order, particularly when you have to blow the whistle on failure. Nobody 
likes to have the whistle blown. But for the sake of our children, we 
need to be blowing whistles. And so I appreciate very much the Mayor. 
Mayor Williams has stood strong, along with the Councilman Chavous. And 
I appreciate my friend David being here as well, for standing strong and 
making sure that the children--we focus on results, not process.
    I want to thank very much my friend Rod Paige. When I hired--hired--
I asked Rod to join me. I didn't hire him. [Laughter] He gets hired by 
school boards, not by Presidents. [Laughter] I was interested in 
somebody that actually had been on the frontlines of public school 
education. He had a tough job in Texas. He was running the Houston 
Independent School District, which is a heck of a lot tougher than being 
President. [Laughter] And the results in Houston were exceptional 
because Rod challenged the soft bigotry of low expectations and raised 
the bar. And he understands you've got to hold people accountable in 
life. And so he's doing a fine job for our country.
    And Peggy, I appreciate you being here, too. Peggy is the head of 
the school board. That is a tough job. That's a tough job, and I thank 
you for taking it on.
    I appreciate the Members of Congress coming. Tom, I'm glad you're 
here. I'm honored you're here. He's the chairman of the House Government 
Reform Committee. He is concerned about making sure DC functions well, 
its schools function well. He's going to work closely with the Mayor. 
And Rodney Frelinghuysen is here as well. He's the House Appropriations 
Subcommittee on the District of Columbia. I'm sure he and the Mayor 
spend a lot of time talking and coming up with the amount of money the 
Mayor thinks is appropriate to run this important city. My only 
admonition is to make sure the potholes in front of the White House are 
full. [Laughter]
    But I want to thank you guys for coming here today. We're going to 
talk about an extremely important initiative that will make a difference 
in the lives of children here in the city. And I want to describe it a 
little bit, this Federal initiative that is going to serve as a model 
for the rest of the country. I want my second home to become a model of 
excellence so that when people see the educational entrepreneurial 
spirit alive and well in DC, they realize they can do the same in their 
own communities.
    Father McCarrick, thank you for coming, too, sir. I appreciate the--
I appreciate your presence. I appreciate the excellence of the Catholic 
school system, not only here in Washington but around the country. I 
think it's very important for our fellow citizens to see the Catholic 
school system as a model of what is possible, how to provide a high-
quality education at a reasonable cost per student. And it's an 
interesting--these Catholic schools can serve not only as an interesting 
go-by but as a model as well for other schools in the District.
    Listen, the No Child Left Behind Act understands that there must be 
accountability, and the way you achieve accountability is you measure. 
And so now we're measuring a lot. We're measuring annually to determine 
whether or not the children can read and

[[Page 854]]

write and add and subtract. We've got to know that. The first 
fundamental question in terms of achieving educational excellence is to 
measure and to provide the test and to see whether or not the children 
have got the basics--and if they do, recognize that the curriculum being 
used is working; if they don't, recognize something has got to change.
    See, the measurement is not meant to punish; it is meant to remedy. 
It is meant to serve as a diagnostic tool. No one ever wants to measure, 
to hold a good teacher up and say, ``You know, gosh, you've got a good 
heart, but you're doing a lousy job. Therefore, you're a failure.'' 
That's not the reason you measure. The reason you measure is you say to 
a teacher, ``You've got a great heart, but you need to fine-tune what 
you're doing because it's not working right now.''
    You've also got to measure in order to begin to effect change that's 
just more--when there's more than talk, there's just actual--a paradigm 
shift. That's what measurement does. It provides the foundations for 
significant change.
    Accountability is important. But accountability without consequences 
means nothing. So in other words, if you measure and find success, there 
needs to be--something needs to happen, which is praise. And parents 
will say, ``Well, gosh, if that's successful, I think we'll continue 
sending my child to that school.'' But if parents don't have any options 
other than a public school system, there's no accountability--really no 
accountability. In other words, if there's nothing else can happen, if 
you find failure and you're stuck, why measure? And so one of the things 
that we're going to talk about today is making sure that any 
accountability system has got--has got some oomph to it, by trusting 
parents to make the right decision for their particular child.
    The District of Columbia needs to improve. Let me just put it 
bluntly. [Laughter] There are some great schools in the District, and 
there are some lousy schools in the District. There has been a recent 
measurement to determine how the District schools do relative to other 
schools around the country. Ninety--in grades four and eight--those were 
the two grades tested--the District of Columbia scored below every 
single State in the Union in terms of basic skills. And that's 
unacceptable. It's unacceptable to the Mayor. It's unacceptable to the 
City Council. It's unacceptable to Peggy. It's unacceptable, most 
importantly, to the parents. And we need to do something about it.
    And the Mayor and the City Council and Peggy have started by 
invigorating a--having a vigorous charter school program. See, charter 
schools say to the world, ``If you've got a better idea, show up and 
show us whether or not you can do a better job of challenging the status 
quo, if the status quo is failing.'' And that's what's happening in 
Washington, and I want to applaud the city for being on the front edge 
of the charter school initiative.
    I'm going to work with Congress--and I appreciate the Members of 
Congress being here to--we need to boost our budget for charter schools. 
I proposed $320 million for charter schools. I want to work specifically 
with the city of Washington, DC. The Mayor and I have--I answer the 
Mayor's calls, and he occasionally answers mine. [Laughter] And one of 
the things that he likes to talk about is the need to make sure that the 
charter school system here is--receives good Federal attention. After 
all, the Federal Government has got a lot to do with how the schools in 
Washington, DC, are funded. So we're committed to a charter school 
program in my administration. I think it's one of the options that ought 
to be made available to parents.
    KIPP Academy is a charter school. The money follows the child, and 
that makes sense. The problem is that oftentimes there's not enough 
charter schools in certain communities to meet the demand. And there is 
big demand here in Washington, DC, for alternatives other than the 
status quo. And so I've got an idea that I want to share with you today 
about how to meet that demand. And that is, I'm going to request $75 
million from the Congress for what we call a choice incentive fund. This 
will be basically scholarships for students to be able to use the money 
as they see fit, public or private. Obviously, private is where you're 
going to require tuition.
    Fifteen million of that dollars will stay here in Washington. It is 
the beginning of a school

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choice program funded by the Federal Government for students here in 
Washington, DC. The scholarships will range up to $7,500 per student. If 
the private school charges less than that, then the remainder, the 
difference between $7,500 and the tuition, goes back into the pot so 
that more children will be funded. We think this will affect a couple of 
thousand children here in Washington, DC. It is the beginning of an 
experiment that will show whether or not private school choice makes a 
difference in quality education in public schools. I happen to believe 
it will.
    I do believe that competition will serve its purpose, and that 
will--other schools will say, ``Wait a minute. We're losing folks. We 
better try something differently. The accountability system says we're 
not doing so well. We need to remember the customer.'' The customer 
happens to be the parent and the student. And I believe the change will 
cause folks to want to invigorate their own curriculum and to figure out 
what's going right or wrong. It will certainly shake the system up. And 
it sounds like to me the system needs to be shaken up if you're not 
doing as well as you should be here in Washington, DC.
    People say, ``Well, gosh, if you're going to do that, then there 
will be no accountability.'' Of course, if a school receives a 
scholarship, then the school needs to be held accountable as well. The 
same accountability system applies to the recipient school as it does to 
the public schools in Washington. We want there to be accountability 
throughout the system. Father McCarrick wouldn't mind that at all. He 
runs a system that is anxious to be held accountable. And so if a 
private scholarship ends up in a Catholic school, people will be held to 
account. After all, it's taxpayers' money. We want to know. We want to 
know whether it--in a public school or a private school, whether or not 
the children are learning.
    Now, if there--if we run out of--if there's more applicants than 
scholarships, then people will say, ``What's going to happen?'' Well, 
there needs to be a lottery. I mean, there needs to be a fair way--this 
isn't--to make sure that everybody has got an equal shot. And then, of 
course, the Congress is going to want to know whether or not the program 
is working, just like the President will want to know. And so therefore, 
what we'll end up doing is, Rod will measure and then submit a report to 
the Congress on an annual basis, so that people will begin to see 
firsthand whether or not what we're attempting to do in Washington, DC, 
has got the positive effect that a lot of us think it will have.
    Look, what we're trying to do is to give parents more options. Step 
one was to measure; step two was to post the results so everybody knows, 
so they can compare school to school. Step three is to say, ``In any 
accountability system, there has to be consequences.'' And the 
consequences--when it comes to education--for failure is the parent 
says, ``I've had it. I'm going to a different option for my particular 
child.''
    The other thing that's important is we've got to have the 
philosophical notion that we cannot have a two-tiered education system 
in America, one tier for those who can afford a certain type of school 
and one tier for those who can't. And so this plan is an attempt to say: 
The two-tiered deal is over with; we're starting to a new tier.
    And there's a demand for this, by the way, in Washington. The 
Washington Scholarship Fund is an interesting idea where people came 
together--I presume from the business community and others--and put up 
money to help children. There are 1,000 applications last year for 100 
slots. It's a measurement, a data point, a measurement of demand, where 
people are interested in doing something differently.
    Virginia Walden-Ford, who I met, is the executive director of the DC 
Parents for School Choice. She says that hundreds of calls come in each 
week to her organization. Parents are wondering, ``Do I have a choice? 
Is there something else I can do? I'm frustrated.''
    Virginia is a good person to be running the program. She--mom of 
three--her youngest son looked like he was a--I guess the best way to 
describe it would be a train wreck. He wasn't doing well in the public 
school system. He might say, the system quit on him, but he certainly 
quit on the system. And Virginia pulled him up and got him into a 
Catholic school. The ninth grade on, he

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became a student. He was challenged. It raised his standards. He's now a 
United States Marine. He's preparing to go to the college. It's a 
wonderful story about Archbishop Carroll High School. More importantly, 
it's a wonderful story about a mom who never gave up.
    So she's taking that experience and is now trying to help other 
parents who are frustrated and other parents who are looking for 
different options for a particular child. I want to thank her for that 
very much. Here's what she said. She said, ``Low-income parents don't 
want handouts. They just want the same opportunities to send their 
children to schools that meet their children's needs.'' And I appreciate 
that comment, and I appreciate you working on this.
    I appreciate meeting Valarie Garland today. We had a very emotional 
meeting. Valarie is concerned, frustrated, worried. We had a--we shed a 
tear or two about the future. Valarie is a single mom--which, by the 
way, is the toughest job in America. It's really hard to be a single mom 
in our country. And then she's a single mom who is worried about the 
education system, on top. And her emotions came forth, and we had a good 
visit about trying to provide a hopeful future for Valarie's child. And 
I believe we can get the Congress to move on this. It will make a 
difference in a lot of people's lives here in Washington.
    Let me summarize by saying, first of all, there's a lot of great 
teachers in America. There's a lot of great teachers right here in 
Washington, DC. There's a lot of good, hard-working folks. And we need 
to always keep in mind the need to praise our teachers and to praise 
people on the frontlines of education.
    Sometimes, however, the system, the curriculum, whatever it may be, 
it becomes stagnant. And wherever we find mediocrity, this society has 
an obligation to challenge that. And that's what we're talking about 
today. We're talking about making sure no child gets left behind by 
focusing on each child. And the best way to focus on each child is to 
look at results and then remember the decisionmaker, who the 
decisionmaker is in society. The decisionmaker is the mom or the dad.
    The District of Columbia is setting a bright example of what is 
possible in education reform. And I'm here to praise the public school 
system of Washington, DC, and for those who are working hard to make it 
better. I'm here to praise the elected officials of Washington, DC, for 
your willingness to step out and to confront failure when you see it and 
to praise success when you see it as well.
    And I'm here to say to the parents of Washington, DC: We care about 
your children. Each child matters. We believe every child can learn. 
We're going to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations in the 
Nation's Capital and around the country, because we know a more hopeful 
America depends on this Nation's capacity to educate each and every 
child.
    I want to thank you for coming, and may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 10:05 a.m. in a classroom at the school. In 
his remarks, he referred to Susan Schaeffler, principal, KIPP DC: KEY 
Academy; Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington, DC; Kevin Chavous and 
David Catania, members, District of Columbia City Council; Peggy Cooper 
Cafritz, president, DC Board of Education; Representative Tom Davis; and 
Theodore E. Cardinal McCarrick, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington.