[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 9 (Monday, March 5, 2007)]
[Pages 233-237]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Samuel J. Green Charter School in New Orleans

March 1, 2007

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Dr. Tony, thank you very much for 
your kind introduction. God, I love the smile on his face. [Laughter]
    Think about this: You can play recess outside in a garden. So, like, 
those are the two things I was good at, at school--[laughter]--eating 
and playing. [Laughter]
    But I really appreciate you inviting me over. Somebody said, ``Well, 
why did you come to Samuel J. Green Charter School in New Orleans, 
Louisiana, when there's other places to go?'' Well, the answer is, 
there's nothing better than being in the middle of a bright spot, a 
place that just shines with optimism, in a part of the world that has 
gone through some really difficult times. And so I'm here to herald 
success--success for today and, equally important, success for the 
future of this important city.
    And I thank you all for giving me a chance to come. I mean, there's 
nothing more illustrative of the issues that this community faces than 
to think that that blue line represented water and destruction. And yet 
we're now dry; we're on dry land, recovering. And so I've come back to 
New Orleans, Louisiana, to remind people that the Federal Government 
still knows you exist, still knows you have issues, and wants to work 
with your leadership to address those issues.
    I know the Picard family is here. Thank you for coming. Gaylen was 
the wife of Cecil, who helped guide Louisiana's schools through the 
worst of the storms. He has passed away. I'm honored to be in your 
presence. I know that you miss your good man, as does the people of New 
Orleans. He was a person that served your community with a lot of class. 
And I know he would be proud of places like Green that are setting high 
standards, strong centers of excellence, making sure every single child 
gets an education. Thanks for being here today. It means a lot.
    Sorry Laura is not here. She and I, by the way, spent some of our 
youth here in New Orleans. I really don't want to go into all the 
details of what--[laughter]--but we know something about the town. And 
it's a great place. And she loves New Orleans, as do I, and we've got a 
lot of friends here.
    I want to thank Robin Jarvis, the superintendent of the Recovery 
School District, for joining us. I appreciate very much--[applause]--
thank you, Robin. I want to thank some of the elected officials who have 
joined us here at the school, with whom I had lunch earlier, starting 
with your mayor. It's good to see you, Mr. Mayor. Appreciate your time. 
A pleasure to be here.
    The mayor and I have gotten to know each other--[laughter]--in a 
positive way--[laughter]--in a positive way. It's interesting, you know, 
we're kind of two strong-willed people who got thrown into a deal we 
didn't ask for. Tell you an interesting story about the mayor. The first 
time I ever met him, we came in Air Force One right after the storm 
hit--a couple of days after, I think it was, and the mayor was a little 
irritable. [Laughter] He hadn't had a shower. [Laughter] So I came off 
the plane--I knew I was dealing with a good man when I looked in his 
eyes and he was able to maintain a certain sense of humor in the midst 
of all the trauma. And so I sent him up the stairs for him to take a 
shower on Air Force One. [Laughter]
    Everybody--yes, I was about to say--[laughter]--the president of the 
New Orleans City Council, Oliver Thomas, thanked me then, and he thanks 
me now. Good to see you, Big O. I have spent enough time down here, 
where I call him, ``Big O.'' [Laughter] He calls me, ``Little G.'' 
[Laughter]
    I'm proud to be with your Lieutenant Governor. Mitch, thanks for 
coming; appreciate you being here. I flew down today from Washington--am 
I flying back with you all too? Yes. Flew down today with the Senator, 
David Vitter, and Congressman Bill Jefferson. Andrea, good to see you. 
Thanks for coming. I think they want a ride back. [Laughter]

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    We had lunch today with a lot of the parish presidents--and Ray and 
Oliver and Mitch and David and Jeff--talking about the issues. Oh, by 
the way, my friend, Don Powell--he's from Texas; I'm from Texas, and--
[applause]. He made the mistake of answering the phone call when I 
called him. [Laughter] I said, ``I need somebody to come down here to 
help the good folks break through the logjams to make sure that that 
which we intend to do gets done.'' And the czar--we call him ``czar,'' 
Don Powell--and I can't thank my buddy enough for taking on a tough job. 
If you were to sit at the table with us, you'd see how tough it is--
``So-and-so has the responsibility here,'' ``No, you've got the 
responsibility''--it's a lot of this. And our job is to make it this: 
straightforward. That's what we're here to do.
    You know, I came down here and spoke, and I said, ``The Federal 
Government will be involved.'' And I said, ``We're going to put money on 
the table to help follow that through.'' And I believe we have, with 
$110 billion. That's not to say there may be more money needed for the 
gulf coast, but 110 billion is a lot. And now the question is, are we 
going to be able to spend it wisely? Can we get it done? Can we get it 
to the people that need help?
    Just so you know, of the 110 billion, 86 billion of that has been 
obligated--in other words, it's out the door. But only 53 billion has 
been spent. And so part of the day today, we talked about if the money 
is out the door in Washington, where is it and how come it hasn't been 
out farther? And that's one of the things that we're going to continue 
to work on, to make sure that obligated money ends up in somebody's 
pocket, so it helps.
    I know housing is a big issue here. The mayor talks about it; Oliver 
talks about it a lot; the Lieutenant Governor is concerned about it. You 
know, I made a conscious decision when we began the rebuilding effort to 
say, ``I want the local folks running the programs.'' I felt you would 
get a better response and a response more tailored to the needs of the 
local citizens if the local folks were in charge. That was the case in 
Mississippi and in Louisiana. And I felt like the housing program that 
was devised by the folks in both Mississippi and Louisiana was a really 
interesting solution, a creative way of saying to people, we're going to 
help you rebuild your homes so that people will actually come back to 
New Orleans, and those who are here will have money to rebuild their 
homes, and those who are outside the State will receive incentives to 
come back.
    And one of the issues we have to work on is to make sure that the 
money that has been sent from Washington to fund the road to recovery 
program, the home program, actually gets spent. I don't know if you know 
this or not, but there is $6.2 billion that has been sent down; 50 
million has been spent. And so we have an obligation, all of us involved 
with this process, to work to make sure that people begin getting that 
money so they can get back to living their lives.
    One of the issues that we talked--spent a lot of time about is 
infrastructure. And Louisiana has had--now had $4.6 billion sent from 
the Federal Government. And actually, it's your money, I mean, so we're 
sending your money back to you--4.6 billion, and about 2.5 billion has 
not yet been spent. I guess what I'm telling you is, is that first of 
all, there is money in the pipeline that I hope will help improve lives. 
And if it is stuck because of unnecessary bureaucracies, our 
responsibility at the Federal, State, and local level is to unstick it, 
is to make sure that it keeps moving.
    The reason I herald this and the reason I want to come to a school 
like this, it's important for the taxpayers from around the country who 
paid the bill to understand where we are in the process and to realize 
there's some really positive things taking place with the money that I 
believe the country has been generous about. In other words, when you go 
to Congress and say, ``We need $110 billion to help the people in the 
gulf coast,'' somebody has got to pay. That's the taxpayer. And the 
taxpayers come from more places than just Louisiana and Mississippi. It 
is the collective effort of the country as a whole. And I'm proud of the 
generosity of our citizens, and I want them to know that while it is 
still difficult work here, progress has been made. And there's more to 
be done.
    The economic recovery here--I was talking to the mayor about Mardi 
Gras, a subject

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I know a little bit about--[laughter]--I remember most of them. 
[Laughter] He said it was up to about 80-something percent capacity. In 
other words, it's not 100 percent; it's not as good as people would like 
it; but things are beginning to happen.
    One of the things that you've got to continue to work on, and we 
want to help you at the local level, is in the criminal justice matters. 
It's important for the society to say loud and clear, there are 
consequences for crime. And there's got to be a--[applause]--there can't 
be any doubt in somebody's mind that this is a consequential society if 
you want to be able to walk your streets safely.
    And so I know the Attorney General was down here the other day. He 
briefed me personally on working with the local folks on--for the 
Federal Government helping, what really is a local responsibility. And 
yet we want to help. We want to make sure your criminal justice system 
does it's job so that citizens feel safe and tourists feel safe to come. 
It's a big responsibility we have, and to the extent that we can help, 
we will.
    One of the things that the mayor and I have talked about is 
extending tax relief to businesses doing jobs here in the New Orleans 
area. Why? Because we want the entrepreneurial spirit to remain strong 
in this part of the world. And one way to encourage strong 
entrepreneurship is to say, there's a tax benefit for investing in this 
part of the country. There's certain things you can look at to determine 
how well an economy is doing.
    Take a look at your port. It's coming back; it's strong. Commerce is 
beginning, and this is--it doesn't seem like much to you all since 
you're so close to it, but for a fellow who was here and remembers the 
port being completely shut down, it's pretty good progress.
    Now, there's more to be done; I fully understand that. The Senator 
spent a little time up there on Air Force One, right up there in the 
Presidential cabin, talking about levees, making sure that the case is 
continually made about strengthening these levees. I hear him. I hear 
him. We have said, we're going to bring the levees up to--stronger than 
ever. We're making progress there. I told the Senator I understand 
there's still more work to be done. And I want to work with Congress to 
the best we can to get money to continue meeting the obligations we set.
    I'm real proud of another thing that's happened as a result of 
Democrats and Republicans working together--it actually happens sometime 
in Washington, DC--and that is that bill I signed that will enable more 
Federal revenues to come down here to restore the wetlands. And the 
reason I bring that up, I'm a strong proponent of the restoration of the 
wetlands, for a lot of reasons. There's a practical reason, though, when 
it comes to hurricanes: The stronger the wetlands, the more likely the 
damage of the hurricane. And so we've been working together on behalf of 
the city.
    I do want to spend a little time on education. I like a system that 
is willing to challenge the status quo when the status quo is failing. 
And one of the reasons I've come to this school is, it represents a 
group of citizens, including your principal and your parents and the 
teachers and the citizens, who said, ``We're tired of mediocrity in the 
school system.'' It is not acceptable to have children trapped in 
schools that will not teach and will not change. It is not acceptable to 
the great city of New Orleans, Louisiana, to have a failing school 
system.
    And so the storm came, and it did terrible devastation, but it gave 
a great chance for renewal. And one of the areas where renewal is most 
evident is in the school system of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the 
charter system, like right here at Green, where people said--[applause].
    There are now 31 charter schools in this city, as I understand it. 
That's up from eight. Charter schools, to me, say, innovation, 
individuality. You know, the No Child Left Behind Act--and I am a very 
strong supporter of it; I look forward to the Congress reauthorizing the 
bill--believes in setting high standards, local control of schools, and 
accountability. And the reason accountability is important is, in order 
to solve problems, you have to measure the problem; you have to know 
what the problem is. You can't guess, particularly when it comes to the 
life of a child. You can't guess as to whether or not a child can read 
or write and add and subtract. You must measure to know.

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    And so we said, in return for Federal money, we expect local 
districts and States to measure, to have tests. The principal, the good 
doc asked me to go into the fourth grade class and say to the kids, 
``Good luck on the test tomorrow.'' That was music to my ears, because 
you don't know whether or not a child is reading unless you test.
    And the interesting thing about No Child Left Behind which is vital 
is that when we find a child falling behind, there is extra Federal 
money for that child to get up to speed early, before it's too late. 
It's a good piece of legislation, and it fits in with the philosophy of 
this charter school.
    If you're interested in changing a school system that hasn't worked, 
please insist upon a couple of things: high standards, for starters. If 
you demand low standards, you're going to get bad results--I call it the 
soft bigotry of low expectations. If you want to have a school system 
that works, insist upon measuring so that a parent will know whether or 
not the curriculum is meeting their child's needs. These parents, by the 
way, are satisfied parents--I don't expect the principal to have brought 
unsatisfied parents, but nevertheless--[applause].
    If you're interested in a school system that works, when you find 
excellence, herald it. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to lend 
my voice to herald this school. By the way, a good school is one that 
generally has an educational entrepreneur as its head; somebody who is 
flexible--rigid enough on the standards, but flexible enough to meet the 
standards; somebody willing to say, ``Well, we tried this curriculum, 
and it hasn't worked; let's make sure that we focus on the children, not 
on the process, and get a curriculum that does work.''
    One of the things that--and by the way, New Orleans is blessed not 
only with a strong public school system, now that you've got charters in 
it, but you've got some great parochial schools too. And these schools, 
like this school, were quick to start up after the storm. They knew 
their mission, and they knew their charge.
    I am very conscious that this community is going to require more 
schools. And the Government has a role to play. We're spending quite a 
bit of money, Federal money, to help you rebuild the schools. And 
Margaret Spellings--who's the Secretary of Education--I know has been 
down here, and I know she understands the responsibility we share. As a 
matter of fact, there's been about $450 million allocated for the New 
Orleans school system. I would strongly--and by the way, some of that 
money is flexible in use. And what I would strongly urge you to do is to 
use some of the unspent money to recruit and attract teachers, because 
in order to make sure that the school system is full--you've got 40 
teachers. Do you need more? Yes. He needs more.
    The housing issue, obviously, is important. But it's also important 
to be able to use some of this money available to find educational 
pioneers that want to come down and lend their expertise to help rebuild 
a school system. There's no doubt in my mind that the school system that 
you're going to rebuild is going to be a great school system, because 
you've given it such a great start. Charter schools work. It makes a lot 
of sense.
    And so I've come to Green to say, thanks to the citizens of New 
Orleans who pay attention to the quality of education; thanks to the 
parents of this school who set an example by being involved; and thanks 
to the leadership. Doc, you're running a good show here. I'm proud of 
your job.
    Thanks for letting me come by. I'm honored to be back down here. I'm 
reminded of the New Orleans Saints football team that--[applause]--
here's a team that a lot of people didn't give much hope for, did they, 
when the season started. And it rose; it became a national story. It was 
a factor in the championship. The same thing is going to happen to the 
city. You got work to do. You got work to do. I'm going to keep coming 
down so long as I'm the President. And then after I'm the President, I'm 
going to slide in incognito. [Laughter]
    God bless you all. Thanks for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 3:44 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Anthony ``Tony'' Recasner, principal, Samuel J. Green Charter School; 
Gaylen David Picard, wife of former Louisiana State Superintendent of 
Education Cecil J. Picard; Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans, LA; Lt. 
Gov. Mitch Landrieu of Louisiana; and Andrea

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Green-Jefferson, wife of Representative William J. Jefferson.