[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 42 (Monday, October 23, 2006)]
[Pages 1837-1843]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Waldo C. Falkener Elementary School in Greensboro, North 
Carolina

October 18, 2006

    Thank you very much, Madam Secretary. I've known Margaret, as she 
said, a long time, and I'm very proud of the job she's doing. She knows 
what she's talking about when it comes to the schools in America, and 
she and I are going to work to make sure that every child gets an 
excellent education.

[[Page 1838]]

    I want to thank the good folks here at Falkener for inviting the 
President to come. As you can tell, it's not an easy thing--[laughter]--
to host the President. It's like, the entourage is pretty big, a lot of 
security. And so for the school folks here, thank you very much for 
accommodating us. I've come because I appreciate the example you set.
    One of the things I like to do is to herald excellence. So the first 
thing I want to say is, congratulations to the principal and the 
teachers and the parents for working hard to make this a fantastically 
interesting place for our children to go to school.
    I want to thank--you know, they say to me, ``What do you want from 
the schools?'' I don't know if you recognize this, but we just had six 
Nobel Prize winners recently announced--America had six Nobel--all of 
whom went to public schools in America. And my hope as I travel through 
the halls of these schools--like this one--I'm meeting Nobel Prize 
winners of the future. It's a noble aspiration for all of us to aim for. 
And so I want to thank you for letting me come.
    I'm going to talk about No Child Left Behind. I think you're about 
to find out I am a passionate advocate of this important law, because I 
know it can save children's lives and I know it can help us meet a 
national objective, and that is, every child getting a good education in 
every school throughout the country.
    I bring greetings from Laura. Most people say, ``I wish Laura had 
come and the old boy stayed home.'' [Laughter] She's actually in El 
Paso, Texas, today--I think she's in El Paso, Texas, today--I'm 
confident, I think that's what she told me--where a new school out there 
is opening up the Laura Bush Library. And well deserved, I want you to 
know, because she has a great passion for making sure that every child 
can read. So I bring--as best I can--her passion here to this important 
school.
    I'm proud to be here with Senator Richard Burr from the great State 
of North Carolina. Thank you for working on us--with--on educational 
excellence. I appreciate Virginia Foxx, the Congresswoman, who joined us 
as well. Amy Holcombe is the principal.
    You might remember, I was a Governor of a State. And I used to say, 
education is to a State what national defense is to the Federal 
Government. And so I took my role as Governor and being involved in 
public school--just like Guy Hunt did--we overlapped as Governors, and 
we prioritized public education. And so I spent a lot of time with 
schools in Texas, and I learned one thing, that these little centers of 
excellence always depended upon having an aggressive principal, a 
principal who is willing to set high standards and not allow for 
mediocrity to set in. So, Amy, I want to thank you for your leadership 
and thank you for your hospitality.
    I met Josette Hamrick, who is the teacher of the year. I 
congratulate you, Josette, for setting a good example. I think Josette 
is here somewhere--there she is. Thanks for being here. I also have 
recently gone to Mary Helen Parson's third grade school--third grade 
class. And Tom ``Ned''--Tom Niedziela--he is a--both of whom are 
dedicated teachers. And so I want to say something about teaching. It is 
a noble profession. It is a necessary profession for this country. And 
for those of you who are teachers, I congratulate you and thank you for 
serving our country.
    I oftentimes say to people that are asking me about--do you have any 
recommendations for what I should be doing, and my answer is, teach. And 
to parents I say, remember, you're the child's first teacher. As a 
matter of fact, schools succeed when a parent understands that teaching 
begins at home, and it makes the job of the classroom teacher so much 
easier. But I want to thank the teachers who are here, and thank you for 
setting a good example.
    I want to thank the school board members who are here. I told the 
head of the school board and the other man on the school board, I said, 
``It's a pretty tough job to be on the school board.'' [Laughter] One 
fellow said, ``Do you want to switch jobs?'' I said, ``You know--I don't 
think so.'' [Laughter] But thank you all for serving. Local control of 
schools is important in order to achieve educational excellence, and I'm 
going to talk a little about that in a minute.
    I also landed today and met a lady named Michelle Gilmore. Michelle 
is--there you are. Thanks for coming. Michelle and her

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husband, Tiran, are here. Michelle volunteers as a mentor. If you are 
concerned about the future of North Carolina or concerned about the 
future of our country and you want to make a difference, become a 
mentor. It's amazing what happens when an adult takes time out of her 
life, in this case, to say to a child, ``I care about you, and I want to 
help.'' The true strength of the United States of America lies in the 
hearts and souls of our citizens. And the amazing thing about our 
country is that there are millions of acts of kindness that take place 
on a daily basis, and it hasn't required one government law.
    And the reason I mention Michelle and the reason I welcomed her to 
Air Force One is because I want to, one, thank you as an individual, and 
remind people that you can serve America by loving a neighbor just like 
you'd like to be loved yourself. And I appreciate you being here, 
Michelle. Thanks for coming.
    I like the fact that this--we're at a school named for a civil 
rights pioneer. I happen to believe reading is a modern-day civil right; 
that if you cannot read, you cannot realize the great promise of the 
United States of America. That's what I believe. And so I've come to 
this school because I believe schools should set high standards and 
insist upon results, like teaching a child to read. I don't think it's 
too much to ask in schools around the United States of America. I know 
what happens when a child can't read at grade level. I know the 
despondency that can be caused if a child is just simply shuffled 
through a school.
    Falkener is a magnet school. In other words, it's a school that--I 
equate that with educational entrepreneurship. It means people are 
willing to try things differently. This school is one that, 
interestingly enough, has got a international baccalaureate program 
inherent in its curriculum. And that's important because international 
baccalaureate programs are programs that set high standards for children 
in later years. So in other words, it's kind of a pre-international 
baccalaureate experience--all aimed at making sure that a child who goes 
from here has a chance to even have a greater skill level than 
anticipated. So it's interesting to be in a school that's a magnet 
school, that has got a pre-international baccalaureate program.
    We support magnet schools at the Federal level. First, let me just 
tell you my theory. Most education needs to be funded at the State and 
local level. I believe that is the proper role between the Federal 
Government and the State government. And yet there are incentive 
programs that come out of Washington--Title I money, for example, is an 
incentive program. We also have put money in our budget for magnet 
schools. As a matter of fact, the budget next year I've asked for has 
got about $100 million for magnet schools. I think magnet schools are 
interesting concepts to--that the local folks ought to decide to use. 
And so there's a little incentive from the Federal Government to 
encourage you.
    I'm a--also understand, and I hope you do--I know those of you 
involved with public schools understand that we're now living in a 
global economy. North Carolina understands that about as much as any 
State. What happens abroad affects the lives of our students in the near 
future. If a child in China gets a good engineering degree and a child 
in America doesn't, it means China is likely to be more competitive in 
the 21st century. In other words, we've got to get education right not 
only because it's a national responsibility but because we're in a 
global world. Whether we like it or not, there is competition for jobs 
of the future that are going to--that will take place. And therefore, 
it's important that we make sure that our children get a solid 
foundation early in order--so that our country can be competitive, as 
well as our children.
    Now, let me talk about No Child Left Behind, because I'm really here 
to make clear to people in Congress, not only who are here but around 
the country, that the reauthorization of this important bill is going to 
be a top priority of mine. And it's not only just the reauthorization; 
it's the strengthening of the bill, and not the weakening of the bill.
    There's been a lot of talk about No Child Left Behind Act. First, 
you've got to understand, it was a bipartisan effort. I readily concede 
that's a rare occurrence in Washington, DC, but nevertheless, 
Republicans and

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Democrats came together to get this important piece of legislation 
passed.
    It said, ``We'll spend more money at the Federal level, but in 
return, we expect results.'' It seems like a simple concept, but 
nevertheless, it was not inherent in the education programs out of the 
Federal Government. We just never really asked; we just assumed 
everything was fine. As a matter of fact, in many schools around the 
country, that's the way it was. If people said it was fine, it was fine.
    You know, I remember, one time, going to a school in Houston, Texas, 
and I said to the teacher, ``How's everything? Thanks for teaching.'' 
She said, ``My kids can't read.'' I think it was ninth or tenth grade. 
It was a shock to the Governor. It should be a shock to everybody when 
you hear a teacher say, my kids can't read by the time they get to high 
school. Something was wrong.
    The point was made to me--and this is when Margaret and I started 
working on this concept of measurement--that if you don't measure, you 
don't know. And the only way to prevent kids from just getting shuffled 
through schools--until the point where the high school teacher says they 
can't read--is to measure early. And so part of the No Child Left Behind 
Act says, ``We expect results, and you measure.''
    I believe in local control of schools. I do not believe the Federal 
Government should be telling the people in North Carolina how to run 
their schools. I think that would be a mistake if that were the case. I 
don't think the Federal Government ought to design the test; the people 
of North Carolina should design the accountability tests. I do think the 
Federal Government ought to ask, ``Can a child read?''
    Look, I understand kids--I understand the debate; you know, 
``They're teaching the test.'' No, you're teaching a child to read so 
they can pass a comprehensive test. And if they can't pass a 
comprehensive test, something is fundamentally wrong. You know, ``All we 
do is test.'' No, what you do is, you teach so that the accountability 
system--when you do test, a child is proficient. You know, if you don't 
test, you don't know. And if you don't know, you can't correct. Active 
schools, schools that are meeting excellence are those that find 
problems early and solve the problems early, before it's too late. 
That's why I'm at this school. This school sets high standards.
    And by the way, if you set low standards, guess what happens in 
schools? You get bad results. If you walk into a classroom full of the 
hard to educate and not have high standards, the hard to educate remains 
hard to educate. So the law says: ``Set high standards; use curriculum 
that works; you can determine what works by measuring whether or not 
students are meeting certain standards; and correct problems early, 
before it's too late.'' That's what No Child Left Behind is all about.
    And it's working. It's working. You know, the first year this school 
was tested under No Child Left Behind, it didn't meet standards--like, 
it just wasn't good enough. This school decided to do something about 
it. See, they recognized they had a problem, and so they used Federal 
funding to pay for new laboratories, teacher collaboration, research on 
what was going right and what was going wrong. There's a new focus on 
results; there was frequent testing; they set up a Saturday Academy for 
children with low test scores that needed extra help. And the results 
have been impressive. Four years ago, about 46 percent of third graders 
at this school were reading at grade level. That's okay if you're a 
parent of one of the 46 percent. It's not okay if you're a parent of one 
of the 54 percent. And the principal and the teachers understood there 
was a problem, and they took steps to change the status quo. And today, 
76 percent are reading at grade level.
    That's what No Child Left Behind does. It can't do the teaching; it 
can't be the leader; but it can help people who care deeply about the 
lives of a child--the life of a child to succeed, to recognize problems, 
address the problem, correct the problem, and teach a child to read. And 
that's what's--that's why I'm at Falkener. This is a school that has 
gone from mediocre to excellent, because they've used the tools of the 
No Child Left Behind Act.
    In the fifth grade, about 68 percent of the students were reading at 
grade level 4 years ago; today, 88 percent of the students are reading 
at grade level. I cannot thank you

[[Page 1841]]

enough for taking advantage of a law that really was living up to its 
name--no child being left behind. Here's what your principal said: She 
said, ``Falkener has greatly benefited from this legislation. Our test 
scores tell our story of success.''
    I met Tom Ned--you call him ``Ned,'' right? Niedziela. He focused on 
reading comprehension and vocabulary, and his class made the largest 
reading gains in the fourth grade. One girl whose first language is 
Spanish--see, if the child's first language is Spanish, that child 
generally is what we call hard to educate. And sometimes that label 
becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Inner-city kids tend to be labeled 
hard to educate, so all that mattered in the past was, if you're 10, 
you're supposed to be here; and if you're 11, you're supposed to be 
there. It's unacceptable for this country, by the way. That type of 
attitude is unacceptable.
    This child started the year reading at the second grade level. 
Thanks to Mr. Ned, she now reads at the sixth grade level. I met her. 
There's nothing more than helping a child's self-esteem than to--
teaching a child to read, just giving that child the basic skills 
necessary to succeed in a hopeful society.
    Here's what Mr. Ned said: He said, ``I told them, if you want to be 
good at something, you've got to practice. If you want to play football, 
you have to go to football practice. If you want to be good at reading, 
you have to practice reading.'' And he said, ``I've never had a class 
work so hard.'' I want to thank Mr. Ned; I want to thank the students. 
There's nothing more heartwarming than to know that standards are being 
met.
    We see the results in No Child Left Behind across the State of North 
Carolina. I don't know if you know this or not, but your State has been 
an innovative State. Your State has been one that has not shied away 
from accountability. In other words, you didn't use excuses about 
testing. You said, ``Look, we want to test because we want to know.'' 
Your State was the first in the Nation to establish an accountability 
system and one of the first to have the testing plans approved under No 
Child Left Behind. In other words, your State led. And I congratulate 
the State leaders and those involved with education for being bold on 
behalf of the children of your State.
    Your test scores are encouraging. The percentage of fourth graders 
with basic math skills rose 10 points between 2000 and 2005. The 
percentage of eighth graders with basic math skills rose about six 
points between 2000 and 2005. African American fourth and eighth graders 
in North Carolina achieved some of the highest math scores in the 
Nation. How do we know? Because we measure.
    It's got to make you feel good to hear African American kids are 
scoring some of the highest tests in the Nation. Can you imagine if the 
President came and said, ``By the way, your kids are scoring the lowest 
scores in the Nation''? I suspect you'd want to be doing something about 
that. At least I would hope you would.
    There are good results of No Child Left Behind across the Nation. In 
other words, we're measuring--each State measures, and you're able to 
norm to determine how States do relative to each other. In reading, 9-
year-olds have made the largest gains in the past 5 years than at any 
point in the previous 28 years. That's good. In math, 9-year-olds and 
13-year-olds earned the highest scores in the history of the test.
    We have an achievement gap in America that is--that I don't like and 
you shouldn't like. It's the difference between reading of African 
American students and Latino students and White students. The gap is 
closing, and that's incredibly important for the United States of 
America, to see that achievement gap close. How do we know? Because 
we're measuring.
    Inherent in No Child Left Behind are some interesting reforms. 
First, if we find a child falling behind early, there is extra Federal 
money to help that child. Think about that. For the first time, the 
Federal Government has said, ``Not only do we want you to measure, but 
when we find a child falling behind, there is extra money to be used in 
either the private or public sector.''
    See, measuring encourages parental involvement. If you measure and a 
parent finds out that his or her child is not succeeding, most parents 
are going to say, ``Do something about it.'' And what the Federal 
Government has said, ``Here's some extra money to help

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you, to get tutoring, to get you back up to grade level.''
    If a school continues to fail--in other words, a school doesn't make 
progress--I believe parents ought to be liberated from that school 
district if they so choose and go to another public school. In other 
words, there has to be a consequence at some point in time for a school 
that won't--is not teaching and won't change, if you expect there to be 
concrete results.
    This school started off with low scores, set high standards, and has 
achieved the objective. I suspect not many parents, even if they could, 
would want to leave, because you're meeting--you're doing the job. There 
are schools around the country that are not doing the job, and that is 
unacceptable to society. It ought to be unacceptable to school boards 
and parents and teachers.
    In DC, we started something interesting. We said that if the school 
fails, continue to--if there's persistent failure, that a child ought to 
be able to go to not only a public school but a private school. We 
provide what are called opportunity scholarships. We work with the mayor 
to enhance--it's an interesting opportunity--said, if you fail, and the 
school won't change, then the DC came up with a scholarship that said 
this scholarship could be redeemed at a public school or a Catholic 
school, for example.
    There is a debate going on about whether we ought to reauthorize the 
No Child Left Behind Act. I think you can get a sense for where I'm 
coming from. Not only do I think we ought to reauthorize it; I think we 
ought to strengthen it. I think it would be a huge mistake for the 
United States Congress not to reauthorize this important piece of 
legislation. And the reason I say that is that it's working. In other 
words, there's just more than words there; we have achieved concrete 
results.
    I'm not suggesting the law shouldn't be improved; it should be 
improved. For example, we ought to make sure that scores are tested 
early, particularly for big districts, so that people understand what 
the results are. Oftentimes in--I don't know how many big districts, 
Margaret--but I've heard complaints from school districts where the test 
scores get posted for the parents after the school year begins, which is 
like--it doesn't work. So the bureaucracy, frankly, has got to be a 
little more facile in getting the results out, and Margaret understands 
that.
    I think we ought to continue doing what we call the Teacher 
Incentive Fund. This is a further reform. It allows States and school 
districts to reward teachers who demonstrate results for their students. 
If this school board decides they want to provide incentives for 
teachers based upon results, the Federal Government will provide money 
to help you do that. I like the idea. You may not like it, and that's 
fine. You got elected a school board member; I didn't. But, 
nevertheless, I do believe we ought to make sure that school boards and 
school districts have the option.
    I also think there ought to be incentives for teachers who make the 
decision to teach in some of the needier school districts, tougher 
schools--to provide an incentive. We have got a program I'm going to 
work with Congress on to encourage math and science professionals to 
come into classrooms. And the reason why is, in order for us to be 
competitive in the future, our students have got to be proficient in 
math and the sciences, and we have to have more emphasis on math and 
science. And there's no better way to encourage a child to take math and 
science than to have a professional come in the class. We call them 
adjunct professors.
    Margaret and I, one time, went over to a school in Maryland, and 
there were some people from NASA there, two science guys from NASA that 
could talk the language of science. And their message was: It's cool to 
be a scientist. Some pretty cool guys that were there, but they were 
saying to eighth grade kids, ``Science is interesting for you.'' 
Sometimes it takes somebody in the field to be able to lend practical 
knowledge to convince children to continue to focus on science and math 
and engineering.
    I talked to you about how to make sure parents get better 
information. I do believe we ought to fund a national opportunity 
scholarship program to make sure parents have choices--particularly poor 
parents have choices beyond just public school choice.
    I'm worried about high school, and I think the new law ought to 
focus a lot on high

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school. Four out of every--one out of every four ninth graders in 
America does not graduate from high school on time. That's a problem. If 
we live in a global world that's highly competitive, our kids have got 
to get out of high school, and they got to head to community college or 
college, if we're going to be competitive. And so we need to bring the 
same standards to our high schools that we have brought thus far to 
elementary and junior high schools.
    We need to test. If it's okay to test in the third grade, it ought 
to be okay to test in high school to determine whether or not curricula 
works, whether or not teaching methodology is working, and whether or 
not our children are learning.
    Again, I told you about the international baccalaureate program. It 
feeds into another way for us to enhance the competitiveness of this 
country, and that is to encourage AP programs--Advanced Placement 
programs--throughout classrooms all across America. One of the 
bottlenecks is--a bottleneck is the number of teachers that are capable 
of teaching AP. I think it's a good use of your taxpayers' money to 
train teachers in Advanced Placement; 70,000 teachers--is our initial 
goal to train in Advanced Placement, so that teachers have the skills 
necessary to teach AP. But it works.
    It's amazing what happens when you set high standards and give 
people the tools necessary to effect those standards. And so these are 
ideas and ways to strengthen No Child Left Behind. We'll continue to 
listen to good ideas. We, of course, will listen to Members of Congress 
from both parties.
    This is a State that had a good idea. They were deeply concerned 
about how to make sure that the accountability system would measure 
progress without--in an accurate way. And so Margaret worked with the 
State leaders, worked with the Senator to provide flexibility for the 
accountability system, without undermining the whole concept of 
measurement. And so in other words, we'll be rational and reasonable, 
but what we will not do is allow schools to lower standards. And what we 
will not do is allow people to get rid of accountability systems, 
because I believe the accountability system is the first step in making 
sure no child is left behind.
    I understand what it means for public schools to guess whether or 
not a child can read and write and add and subtract, and I understand 
fully the consequences of a system that guesses. I also understand the 
consequences of a system which measures, and a system which measures and 
corrects problems is a system which will help meet the great promise of 
this country.
    I want to thank you for giving me a chance to come and talk about 
something I feel strong about, deeply passionate about. I'm looking 
forward to getting these elections behind us and start working on the 
reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, for the good of every 
child in the United States of America. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 2:07 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
former Gov. James Baxter Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina; Alan W. Duncan, 
chairman, Guilford County Schools Board of Education; and Mayor Anthony 
A. Williams of Washington, DC. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.