[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 26 (Monday, July 2, 2007)]
[Pages 858-862]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the 2007 Presidential Scholars

June 25, 2007

    Welcome to the White House. It's a neat occasion to be able to 
welcome the 2007 Presidential Scholars. We're glad you're here. I 
congratulate you on the fine honor, and of course, we wish you all the 
very best.
    The Presidential Scholars program started in 1964. I was a senior in 
high school--I didn't make it. [Laughter] I know all of you worked hard 
to reach this day. Your families are proud of your effort, and we 
welcome your family members here. Your teachers are proud of your 
effort, and we welcome your teachers. And our entire Nation is proud to 
call you Presidential Scholar.
    I'm sorry Laura is not here. She would have loved to have welcomed 
you. She is off to Africa. And she's there to make sure that people on 
that continent understand that ours is a nation with a good heart. After 
all, we're leading the fight against HIV/AIDS and malaria on that 
continent. And so she is spreading the good will of the American 
taxpayer by representing our country. In my judgment, there's no finer 
representative than Laura Bush.
    Madam Secretary, thank you for joining us. We're proud you're here--
the Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings. I thank the Members of 
Congress who have joined us: Senator Lieberman, Congressman Buck McKeon, 
Congressman Dale Kildee, and Congressman Mike Castle. I'm honored you 
took time, and so are the Presidential Scholars; they're proud you're 
here.
    I want to thank the members of the Presidential Scholars Commission 
for picking such a fine group of people, and the Presidential Scholars 
probably want to thank you as well. [Laughter] This is a program that 
honors

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high school seniors for exceptional academic and artistic achievements. 
Past winners have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize, succeed at the 
highest levels of business, work here at the White House.
    This afternoon we honor a new class of promising young men and 
women. Your fellow scholars have pursued groundbreaking research, 
written scholarly papers, and performed at Carnegie Hall. Many of you 
have also reached out to those in need and have given your time for 
causes greater than any individual need, and for that, we thank you.
    Caterina Yuan shared her passion for service with her classmates at 
Palo Alto High School in California. She's run food drives, raised 
thousands of dollars for humanitarian efforts in Africa, and helped 
organize a school-wide day of service. She's a scholar, but she's also a 
humanitarian.
    Erin Jaeger, from Keene, New Hampshire, helped bring hope and 
comfort to those living in poverty and hardship. She made three trips to 
El Salvador to build houses and visit orphanages.
    Charlie Bridge from Belmont, Massachusetts, has given back to his 
community through teaching. He's tutored disadvantaged middle school 
students, and he plans to continue this important work this summer.
    One person not here today is Max Weaver. He's busy preparing for an 
engagement at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. In a few days 
he's going to begin an intensive basic training regime that cadets like 
to call ``the Beast.'' We wish him luck, and we thank him and all the 
other brave men and women who have volunteered to serve in the United 
States Armed Forces.
    The reason I bring these examples up is that no matter what you do 
later in life, I encourage you to use your talents to help other people. 
The true strength of America is the fact that we've got people of good 
heart and good soul reaching out to people in need. And I thank you for 
being leaders and setting a good example.
    As we celebrate your accomplishments, we also need to honor those 
who helped you reach this day. You know, I always say that the first 
teacher of a child is a mom or a dad. For the moms and dads here, 
congratulations on doing your job. And I thank the teachers who are here 
as well. There's no more noble a profession than being a teacher. And I 
suspect the reason we're honoring Presidential Scholars--or these 
Presidential Scholars--is because you and their parents set high 
standards, set a high bar of expectations.
    You know, part of the problem we've had in our school system is for 
too often and too long that bar wasn't set high enough; that we had too 
many students who were victims of low expectations. I used to call it 
the soft bigotry of low expectations. Schools just shuffled kids from 
grade to grade, as if the child couldn't learn to read and write and add 
and subtract. We never measured; we never had any idea how the child was 
doing until it was too late. And that was unsatisfactory for the United 
States of America; it's unsatisfactory for the President; it's 
unsatisfactory for the future.
    And that's why when we came to Washington, we worked with Democrats 
and Republicans to pass what's called the No Child Left Behind Act. The 
philosophy behind the law is straightforward. It says the Federal 
Government should expect results in return for the money it spends. 
That's not too much to ask, I don't think. If you believe a child can 
learn to read, then you ought to expect a child to read. That's what you 
ought to expect. And the only way to determine that is to measure.
    I'm sure some of your classmates would say you don't like to take a 
test. Well, I didn't either. [Laughter] But that's too bad because the 
only way to determine whether a child is reading at grade level is to 
have accountability in our school systems. And that's the basic strategy 
of No Child Left Behind. It says, here's some money; we expect you to 
teach; we want to measure to determine if you are teaching; we look 
forward to patting you on the back, but if you're not teaching a child 
the basics, then we expect you to change, before it is too late.
    Measuring results helps teachers spot problems. In other words, you 
can't solve a problem until you diagnose it. It gives teachers tools and 
schools tools, the key tool necessary to determine whether or not a 
curriculum needs to change or whether or not a child needs to get 
special attention.

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    Measuring results gives parents key information about how their 
child's school is doing. You know, it's amazing how many parents will 
say, ``The school my child goes to is doing just fine.'' That's what 
everybody hopes, and that's what everybody assumes, until scores get 
posted. It's amazing what happens when you hold people to account. It 
certainly gets a parent's attention when they find out that their 
child's school isn't doing as good as the neighborhood's school is, for 
example, or school next door.
    No Child Left Behind is working. In other words, we're making good 
progress. During the most recent 5-year period on record, 9-year-olds 
made more progress in reading than in the previous 28 years combined. 
You can't say that unless you measure. You can't stand up in front of 
the taxpayers and say, your money is being well spent because we're 
measuring; we know; we're measuring. Before, it was just--you were just 
guessing. Now, thanks to No Child Left Behind, there is accountability 
that's important to be able to report progress to the American people.
    Speaking about progress, the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy 
found that many States have seen reading and math test scores increase 
since we've passed No Child Left Behind. The study found that minority 
and low-income students are making some of the biggest gains. And that's 
positive and important news for the American people.
    We had an achievement gap in our country, and it's not right to have 
an achievement gap in America. And this achievement gap is becoming 
closed, thanks to hard work by teachers, but also thanks to the fact 
that we're measuring and correcting problems early, before they're too 
late.
    The No Child Left Behind Act is working, and Congress needs to 
reauthorize this good piece of legislation. Reauthorizing No Child is 
one of the top priorities of my administration, and I know it's a top 
priorities of Members of Congress. Buck McKeon is going to be handling 
the reauthorization on the Republican side in the House of 
Representatives, and he is determined to work with people in both sides 
of the aisle, Dale, to help to get this job done. We made a historic 
commitment, and I believe we have a moral obligation to keep it.
    Our ability to compete in the 21st century depends upon educating 
children just like the ones standing behind me. Whether we like it or 
not, we're in a global world. And if the world needs engineers or 
scientists, and those scientists are being educated in China and India 
and not being educated in the United States, the jobs of the 21st 
century are likely to go there. And so we better make sure that we have 
a strategy aimed at making sure that we have high expectations and good 
results for every child in the United States, if we expect to remain 
competitive.
    Presidential Scholars, you leave your high school with confidence in 
your ability, and you've got a great foundation for success. We want to 
make sure that same confidence is instilled in every single child that's 
getting out of high school. And so what can we do? First, we can make 
sure No Child Left Behind gets reauthorized. You cannot compete in a 
global world unless you're certain that we're achieving certain 
standards. We want every child reading at grade level by the third 
grade. And the only way you know whether that's the case is you measure.
    And by the way, inherent in No Child Left Behind is a novel idea 
that said, if a child needs extra help, there's going to be money 
available to help that child. That's how you make sure that you use the 
accountability system to achieve results, achieve expectations.
    But we need to do more. Our high schools need to have 
accountability. We want to make sure that same rigor that we've applied 
in the elementary and middle schools are applied to our high schools. If 
we want to be competitive, the high school diploma has to mean 
something. We want to make sure that we expand Advance Placement. I bet 
most kids here took AP courses, and AP is a great way to raise standards 
and raise expectations. And we've got to help teachers learn how to 
teach AP courses as part of our strategy.
    We want to make sure that we have a rigorous course of study 
available for all our kids. We want to make sure we strengthen math and 
science. And that's why I proposed a program to encourage 30,000 math 
and science professionals to become part-time teachers. I remember we 
went to a school in Maryland, Margaret, and there was two guys there 
that were making science look

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cool. I can't do that. Most parents aren't able to do that. [Laughter] 
But it's amazing what a scientist can do.
    And why do we need that? Why do we need 30,000 math and science 
professionals to go into classrooms to stimulate interest? Because we 
can't be a competitive nation without more scientists and more 
mathematicians. Because in order for us to make sure the best jobs are 
in America requires us having mathematicians and scientists and 
engineers and physicists. And the best way to stimulate that interest is 
from people who actually know what they're talking about.
    We want to make sure that we work with Congress to have extra 
funding for under-performing schools. I told you if you measure, we've 
got extra money for the children; we also got extra money for under-
performing schools. And those schools need flexibility. In other words, 
we've got to have--trust local folks to make the right decisions for 
local schools. So Margaret is going to work with the school districts 
and with the Congress to make sure they've got flexibility to use the 
resources where they're most needed, to tailor reforms to the specific 
needs of individual schools.
    In other words, people say, ``Well, you can't be for No Child Left 
Behind; it's the Federal Government telling you what to do.'' Quite the 
opposite. The Federal Government has said, ``We believe in local control 
of schools; you reform them; you fix them.'' We're just going to insist 
that you measure, in return for the billions we spend on your behalf.
    I proposed an interesting idea that I hope Congress passes, and that 
is creating a teacher incentive fund of nearly $200 million for the next 
year as the beginning--as a downpayment to encourage teachers to teach 
in districts where they need a little extra help; reward teachers who 
will go into these school districts that need high expectations. We need 
people to walk in and say, the status quo is unacceptable, people who 
show that educational entrepreneurship necessary to make sure every 
single child gets a good education. And I hope Congress works on that 
with us.
    When schools fail to make progress, No Child Left Behind needs to 
give parents different options. In other words, you cannot tolerate a 
system where a child is stuck in a school which will not teach and will 
not change. There has to be a consequence. We've got remedies in the 
bill that say, we're going to help schools affect their programs, but 
ultimately, a parent must be given the ability to transfer their child 
out to another public school or free tutoring for their children. In 
other words, there has to be a consequence in order to make sure that 
there's effectiveness when it comes to reform--schools that need to be 
reformed. I strongly believe that parents are the frontlines of the 
decisionmaking and should be empowered--empowered through information 
and empowered through different options available through the public 
school system.
    We did something else interesting, and I look forward to working 
with Congress on this--and I must confess, it's slightly controversial--
and that is, is that we promoted the first federally funded opportunity 
scholarship program here in Washington, DC. It basically said to low-
income parents that here's some money to help you send your child to a 
private school or a parochial school, your choice. In other words, it 
said, if you're tired of being in a system that simply hasn't met 
expectations, that there ought to be something different, and that I 
believe that--I think it's the role of government to help low-income 
parents have different options.
    The program is working. It's over-subscribed. I mean, there are 
thousands of families that have been helped through this Washington, DC, 
program, which ought to say to policymakers, there's a huge demand for 
something better. People are sick of mediocrity in the status quo. 
Obviously, it hasn't happened with these kids, for which we're grateful. 
But there's still too many schools that just aren't meeting 
expectations. And so I look forward to working to see if we can't expand 
this kind of program.
    The reason I've asked to speak to you is because I want people to 
understand how important this No Child Left Behind Act is to America and 
its future. And we will talk about ways to make the law better. I know 
some Members and Senators have got concerns about the law, and we're 
more than willing to talk about flexibility. But there is

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no compromise when it comes to setting high standards and measurement. 
You cannot compromise away the principle of saying, we expect good 
results, and we're going to measure to determine whether or not we've 
achieved those results. And when you've achieved the results that we, a 
society, expect, we'll give you the big embrace. But if not, for the 
sake of the country, for the sake of kids who deserve better, we expect 
you to change. That's what we're going to say, loud and clear and often. 
And it's working; the program is working.
    I want to thank Margaret for working hard with Members of Congress. 
She's engaged, as you know--she's probably wearing you out, Buck--
[laughter]--and Dale. But that's good. She's up there working. Laura is 
all involved too. She's met with a lot of Members of Congress, and 
she'll stay involved, as will I. This is a very important piece of 
legislation. We want every child in America to be a Presidential 
Scholar. We want every child in this country to realize the great 
potential of America by starting them off with a good, sound education 
that lets them realize their dreams.
    Ours is a fabulous country. We've got kids standing up here who not 
only are scholars but have volunteered to help a neighbor in need. We've 
got people who're volunteering to help protect this country. And the 
thing we've got to do as policymakers is to make sure that we continue 
to advance America by giving people the tools necessary to realize the 
great promise of America.
    Thanks for coming. God bless you all, and God bless our country.

Note: The President spoke at 3:13 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House.