[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 37 (Monday, September 15, 2003)]
[Pages 1166-1170]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Kirkpatrick Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee

September 8, 2003

    Thank you all very much. I am honored to be at a school which 
refuses to leave any child behind. A good school begins with a good 
principal, somebody who is willing to challenge the soft bigotry of low 
expectations. And that's what Kim Fowler has done, and we're honored to 
be here. And I want to thank you for putting up with this huge entourage 
that travels with me. [Laughter]
    We're here because, as you may remember, the Federal Government 
passed an innovative law recently, and a lot of people are wondering 
what that law means. And we have used this school as an example of what 
is possible for parents and for educators to make sure that not a single 
child gets left behind.
    Before I begin to talk about the school, I do want to say that I am 
most appreciative that the superintendent of schools from Nashville 
Public Schools is with us today. He's an innovator. He believes in 
setting high expectations for every child. It's not my first time I have 
been in Pedro Garcia's presence.
    I love the motto of the school district here: Whatever It Takes--
whatever it takes to succeed. And Pedro, thank you for setting a good 
example. We appreciate what you're doing, and we appreciate what the 
Nashville schools are doing to take advantage of the No Child Left 
Behind Act.
    When I was looking for somebody to be the head of the Department of 
Education, I wanted somebody who had been on the frontlines of 
education, perhaps a superintendent of schools. And I knew a man in 
Houston, when I was the Governor of Texas, who was setting high 
standards and using innovation when innovation was needed to make sure 
the children of Houston, Texas, learned. And that man is with us today, 
who is now the head of the Department of Education, the Secretary of 
Education, Rod Paige. And thank you for coming.
    He's not the only person in this audience who has been the Secretary 
of Education. Senator Lamar Alexander was the Secretary

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of Education and did a fine job. I'm so honored you're here, Senator. 
Thank you for coming.
    And I'm honored also to have traveled down with Senator Bill Frist, 
the majority leader of the United States Senate. He's doing a fabulous 
job for the country. As well, we've got Congressman Zach Wamp and 
Congressman Lincoln Davis and Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn with us 
from the mighty Tennessee delegation. We're honored you all are here, 
and thank you for coming.
    The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, Bill Purcell, is here. And Mr. 
Mayor, thank you for coming. I'm honored you would take time out to 
greet us. It means a lot that you're here, and we appreciate you coming 
as well.
    Finally, when I landed at the airport, I had the honor of meeting 
Brenda Wilson. The people of this good elementary school know who Brenda 
is; people around the city may not. She's a soldier in the army of 
compassion. She's a person who volunteers to make sure the children can 
learn. She represents the thousands of people in this city and in this 
State who say, ``If I've got a problem with a public school, I'm going 
to be involved with it. Instead of hoping that some distant government 
insists upon excellence, I, Brenda Wilson, will dedicate myself by 
donating time to make sure children get the very best.''
    She volunteered from 1995 to 2002 in this school. She did such a 
good job that you've named her the coordinator of volunteer services. 
That means if a child is going hungry, somebody will help find the food. 
If a child needs clothing, somebody will help find the clothes. If a 
child needs extra tutorial help beyond that which I'm going to describe, 
Brenda's job is to find people to volunteer, and she herself volunteers.
    You know, there's a lot of talk in our--across our country about how 
strong America is. And we're strong, and I intend to keep us that way. 
But the true strength is not our military strength or our military 
muscle. The true strength is the heart and soul of the American people, 
people who are willing to say, ``How can I help somebody? What can I do 
to make my community a better place?'' Brenda, thank you for being one 
of those soldiers in the army of compassion. I appreciate you being 
here. Thank you, Brenda.
    So there's been a lot of talk about the No Child Left Behind Act. 
Let me describe the principles inherent in the act, what we're doing to 
make sure no child gets left behind, and why I'm here at this elementary 
school.
    First, as I mentioned, this society of ours must challenge the soft 
bigotry of low expectations. I believe, Kim believes, I know the 
teachers at this good school believe that every child can learn. We 
believe in the potential of every single child and, therefore, must 
insist that every child learns. See, if you don't believe certain 
children can't learn, then the tendency is just to shuffle them through 
the system. If you don't believe every child has worth, then the system 
tends just to give up on the child and move them through. And then at 
the end of high school, people can't read, and we've created a social 
problem.
    So the No Child Left Behind Act says that we're going to challenge 
the soft bigotry of low expectations. And I want to thank Kim for doing 
that, and I want to thank the teachers in this school and across this 
city who are willing to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. 
Teaching is a noble profession; it's an honorable profession. And we 
want to thank our teachers, not only at this school but across this city 
and this State for agreeing to teach.
    So, in other words, the bill basically says, ``We believe in high 
expectations, and we believe it so strongly, we want to measure to see 
if those expectations are being met.'' It's one thing to say, ``I 
believe in high expectations,'' but unless you measure, you don't know 
whether expectations are being achieved.
    And so, for the first time, the Federal Government has said, ``In 
return for Federal dollars, we're going to measure''--not we, the 
Federal Government, but the State and local authorities will measure. In 
return for the Federal Government writing checks to States and to 
children, we want to know.
    The person who doesn't believe certain children can learn just 
don't--doesn't care about the measurement system. If you do care about 
each child, then you want to know whether or not expectations are being 
met.

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    There's a lot of talk--listen, I cut my teeth in accountability in 
the State of Texas. I've heard every excuse in the book why not to 
measure. ``Oh, you're teaching to test,'' you'll hear. Well, if you're 
teaching a child to read, that child will pass the test. ``We're testing 
too much.'' My attitude is, is that in order to know, in order to 
diagnose a problem, you have to measure it in the first place. You 
cannot solve a problem until you measure in the first place.
    And so the Congress did the right thing in insisting that we hold 
people accountable for results, and now we measure. And for the schools 
that are doing great, there ought to be nothing but praise. And for the 
schools that need help in meeting high expectations, there needs to be 
extra resources. And that's what this bill did. The budget for next year 
boosts funding for elementary and secondary education to $53.1 billion. 
That's a 26-percent increase since I took office. In other words, we 
understand that resources need to flow to help solve the problem.
    Of that money, a lot of it goes to Title I, Title I money to help 
certain children. That's to the tune of $12.3 billion. That's a 41-
percent increase for Title I students. And that's where the money goes, 
to help the Title I students in this school on special needs.
    Now, the other thing we've done, which I'm proud of, is to fund 
effective reading programs. If you can't read, you're not going to do 
math, and if you can't read, you can't be a scientist. If you can't 
read, you can't understand history. If you can't read, you're going 
nowhere, if the truth be known. And so we've spent money for reading 
programs, money that will fund curriculum that actually works. There's a 
science with reading; it's not a art. They know what it takes to teach a 
child how to read. I appreciate the fact that the Nashville school 
system and this school uses reading programs that will teach a child how 
to read, not that sound good or feel good but actually achieve the 
results necessary so no child is left behind.
    And so, the resources were there for--not only to make sure that 
teacher training is available and methodologies that work. I know we've 
had a lot of teacher training programs all around the country. It's 
beginning to make a significant effect. We started with the early grades 
first. We've got money in place to fund the measurement systems, to make 
sure the measurement systems get up and running and operate well. And 
we've got money in place to help students that need extra work.
    And that's why we're here, because there is a triggering event in 
the bill, and it says that if schools are not meeting expectations, then 
parents should be given different options. If students--if the school is 
not achieving that which is expected and there's a chance a child will 
be left behind, then one remedy is to give parents the choice to choose 
another public school or perhaps to send their--a child to a tutorial 
sessions like we just saw today.
    We have come from a really interesting little laboratory of 
excellence that Kim set up where three different providers were tutoring 
children. It gave me a chance to see that this school and this school 
district has not only reached out to parents but has reached out to 
educational providers that say, ``We want to enlist your services to 
make sure no child is left behind.'' We measure. We determine which 
children need help. Parents are then given the option to decide what 
kind of tutors is needed to meet that child's needs.
    The school district and the school don't fear extra help. They 
welcome extra help. They have used the measuring system not to punish 
anybody but determine what else is needed to make sure the child gets 
extra help. We not only saw the children learning and practicing to 
read; we met their parents. They could provide the testimony a lot more 
eloquently than me. But when you hear a parent--a mom say to me, ``My 
child was at a second-grade level; the measurement system saw that she 
needed help. Thankfully, the Federal Government passed a law which 
provides extra time on tasks for my child, and now she's reading at the 
fifth-grade level, and she's in the fourth grade,'' that's a good sign. 
It means this particular child will not be left behind. It means the 
system is working. We measure to determine who needs help, and we 
provide the help.
    And so, one of the problems we face--obviously, not here, but one of 
the problems

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we face is whether or not other school districts are properly 
advertising that which is available for students that need help. We've 
come to Nashville because the superintendent of schools has decided to 
make it widely known that extra services for children are available; 
made it widely known that summer school, after-school programs, Saturday 
programs, tutorials provided by the school district and/or private 
enterprise, are all available for parents whose children qualify.
    You see, if you measure and then don't provide extra help, the 
measurement system is empty. If you measure, determine who needs help, 
and then provide the extra help, we have done our duty as adults to 
provide the skills necessary for children to succeed in life. And that's 
what this school is doing. The tutorials have got to make sure that the 
programs have got proven track records, that they relate to directly 
what is needed to meet the curriculum needs of a school.
    One other thing that's interesting that we have discovered is that 
research shows that after-school tutoring programs can do a lot for 
student achievement. That makes sense. If you focus on a child, focus 
energies on an individual child and stay on it and stay on task and if 
you believe every child can learn, then we will succeed.
    And so, what I want people to understand around the country is that 
leaders, education leaders and Governors must advertise to the parents 
that which is now available under the No Child Left Behind Act, just 
like they're doing here in Nashville, Tennessee.
    Kim was telling me they sent out flyers to parents in her--the 
parents of the children who go to her school. They're aggressive in the 
outreach to make sure parents know that which is available. And that's 
what other States must now do. Other States must seize the moment. Other 
States must not fear measurement but use the measuring tool as a way to 
determine who needs help. And the resources are there to provide that 
help. Other States must challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. 
Other States must do their duty to their children.
    Kim Fowler is--has got the right attitude. She is not intimidated by 
measurement. She's not afraid to be held to account. She looks at the 
tests as a way to help people. She knows that you don't teach self-
esteem--there's not a course that says the self-esteem--you teach a 
child to read, and he or she earns self-esteem. And that's the right 
attitude.
    I'm so thankful that we've got people like Kim all across America 
who have got the right attitude. And I'm so thankful that we've got 
teachers like the teachers here that work with Kim, to make sure that no 
child is left behind.
    Lakeisha Begley is a fourth-grader here. She was way below grade 
level. The system kicked in. Barbara, her mama, said that, one, she was 
appreciative of the fact that she had a choice. See, she was notified, 
said, ``You're daughter's not doing well,'' and then was given an 
option, a range of options. The school and the district trust the 
parents to make the right choice. It's not one of these paternalistic 
things that, ``This is what's going to happen.'' They say, ``We've got a 
problem with your child. We're going to give you some options from which 
to choose.'' So she signed up for a private tutor.
    Barbara said she's already seen the difference. The child is 
excited. The child can't wait to read. ``From day one, Lakeisha learned 
better study skills,'' she said. She was thrilled about doing it and 
thrilled about learning. The program motivated her to learn more. And 
that's what we're here to talk about, how to make sure we can put 
programs in place that motivate our children who need help to learn 
more.
    I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be here because I believe 
that this country can solve any problem that we face. We face a problem, 
to make sure every child can read. The statistics are loud and clear, 
too many of our fourth-graders cannot read at grade level. The Federal 
Government decided to do its part by not only providing the resources 
but by insisting upon results.
    We are challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. We believe 
every child can learn. And I'm convinced when these programs are fully 
implemented, children will learn, and America will be better off.
    Thank you for having me here today. May God bless you all.

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Note: The President spoke at 2:40 p.m. in the auditorium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Kim Fowler, principal, Kirkpatrick Elementary 
School; Pedro E. Garcia, director of schools, Metropolitan Nashville 
Davidson County Board of Public Education; and Kirkpatrick student 
Lakeisha Begley, and her grandmother, Barbara Stegall. He also referred 
to Title I of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (Public Law 
No. 103-382), which amended Title I of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965 (Public Law No. 89-10).