[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 37 (Monday, September 15, 2003)]
[Pages 1162-1163]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

September 6, 2003

    Good morning. This month, as students across the Nation are starting 
a new school year, parents, teachers, and principals are starting to 
notice a difference in America's schools. The No Child Left Behind Act 
that I signed into law last year is raising standards for student 
achievement, giving parents more information and more choices, requiring 
more accountability from schools, and funding education at record 
levels.

    The premise of the No Child Left Behind Act is simple: All children 
can learn, and the only way to make sure our children are learning is to 
measure their progress with tests. So the No Child Left Behind Act 
requires regular testing in the basics of reading and math for every 
child in every school, starting in the third grade. And the law sets a 
clear goal for American education: Every child in every school must 
perform at grade level in reading and math, which are the keys to all 
learning.

    To meet this goal, all 50 States and the District of Columbia and 
Puerto Rico have designed accountability plans that have been approved 
by the Department of Education and are now being put into effect in 
America's schools. School districts across America are now providing 
parents with lists of outside tutors who can give extra help at no cost 
to low-income children in underperforming schools. Those parents also 
have the option of transferring a son or a daughter out of a school that 
is not doing the job to a better public school or charter school. And 
soon every community in America will have report cards on every local 
public school, so citizens can measure progress and push for reform.

    While we're demanding excellence from schools, we're also giving 
them extra resources to succeed. Since this new law went into effect, 40 
States have received a total

[[Page 1163]]

of nearly $1.3 billion in grant money to support scientifically based 
reading instruction in kindergarten through the third grade.
    My budget for next year includes more than $1.1 billion for 
effective reading programs, 4 times the amount we were spending on these 
programs when I took office. And overall Federal spending for elementary 
and secondary education is higher than ever before. My budget for next 
year boosts education funding to $53.1 billion, an increase of nearly 
$11 billion since I took office.
    Schools are getting the Federal resources and help they need to 
improve, and parents are getting the information and options they need 
to support reform. And we're just beginning. This new school year will 
be a year of challenges and hard work and great progress. And through it 
all we will keep in mind the focus of all our efforts, our children, who 
deserve an education worthy of this great Nation. Together we will make 
sure that every child learns and no child is left behind.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 8:55 a.m. on September 5 in the 
Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on September 
6. The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on September 5 but was embargoed for release until the 
broadcast. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of this address.