A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

President Clinton's Call to Action
for American Education
in the 21st Century

• Set rigorous national standards, with national tests in 4th-grade reading and 8th-grade math to make sure our children master the basics. Every 4th grader should be able to read; every 8th grader should know basic math and algebra. To help make sure they do, the President is pledging the development of national tests in 4th-grade reading and 8th-grade math, and challenging every state and community to test every student in these critical areas by 1999. These tests will show how well students are meeting rigorous standards and how well they compare with their peers around the country and the world. They will help parents know if their children are mastering critical basic skills early enough to succeed in school and in the workforce. Every state and school should also set guidelines for what students should know in all core subjects. We must end social promotion: Students should have to show what they've learned in order to move from grade school to middle school and from middle school to high school. We must make sure a high school diploma means something.

• Make sure a talented and dedicated teacher is in every classroom. In addition to the talented and dedicated teachers already in the classroom, 2 million new teachers will be needed over the next ten years to replace retirees and accommodate rapidly growing student enrollments. We must take advantage of this opportunity to ensure teaching quality well into the 21st century by challenging our most promising young people to consider teaching as a career, setting high standards for entering the teaching profession, and providing the highest quality preparation and training. We should reward good teachers, and quickly and fairly remove those few who don't measure up. The President's education budget will make it possible for 100,000 master teachers to achieve national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards over the next ten years.

• Teach every student to read independently and well by the end of the 3rd grade. Reading is the key to unlocking learning in all subjects. While America's 4th graders read on average as well as ever, more than 40 percent cannot read as well as they must to succeed later in school and in the workforce. Research shows that students unable to read well by the end of the 3rd grade are more likely to become school dropouts and truants, and have fewer good options for jobs. The President's America Reads Challenge is a nationwide effort to mobilize a citizen army of a million volunteer tutors to make sure every child can read independently by the end of the 3rd grade. Parents, teachers, college students, senior citizens, and others can all pitch in to give children extra help in reading during the afternoons, weekends, and summers. At the same time, schools must strengthen the teaching of reading in the school day, and the President's budget invests more in programs that address reading achievement in school.

• Expand Head Start and challenge parents to get involved early in their children's learning. A child's learning begins long before he or she goes to school. That's why the President's budget expands Head Start to benefit one million children by 2002. Parents are their children's first teachers, and every home should be a place of learning. The President and First Lady will convene a conference this spring to review recent scientific discoveries on early childhood learning and to show how parents, teachers, and policy makers can use this new knowledge to benefit young children. And in June, the Vice President and Mrs. Gore will host their sixth annual family conference, and focus on the importance of parents' involvement throughout a child's education.

• Expand school choice and accountability in public education. The President has challenged every state to let parents choose the right public school for their children. Innovation, competition, and parental involvement will make our public schools better. We must do more to help teachers, parents, community groups, and other responsible organizations to start charter schools -- innovative public schools that stay open only as long as they produce results and meet the highest standards. The President's budget doubles funding to help start charter schools so that there will be 3,000 charter schools at the dawn of the 21st century, providing parents with more choices in public education.

• Make sure our schools are safe, disciplined and drug free, and instill American values. Students cannot learn in schools that are not safe and orderly and do not promote positive values. We must find effective ways to give children the safe and disciplined conditions they need to learn, such as by promoting smaller schools, fair and rigorously enforced discipline codes, and teacher training to deal with violence. We should continue to support communities that introduce school uniforms and character education, impose curfews, enforce truancy laws, remove disruptive students from the classroom, and have zero tolerance for guns and drugs. We should also keep schools open later as safe havens from gangs and drugs, expanding educational opportunities for young people in the afternoons, weekends, and summers, and providing peace of mind for working parents.

• Modernize school buildings and help support school construction. Just as we face unprecedented and growing levels of student enrollment, a recent report by the General Accounting Office shows that a third of our nation's schools need major repair or outright replacement. To keep children from growing up in schools that are falling down, the Administration has proposed $5 billion to help communities finance $20 billion in needed school construction over the next four years.

• Open the doors of college to all who work hard and make the grade, and make the 13th and 14th years of education as universal as high school. To prepare ourselves for the 21st century, we must open the doors of college to all Americans and make at least two years of college as universal as high school is today. The President's HOPE scholarship, a $1,500 tax credit for tuition paid for the first two years of college, would be enough to pay for a typical community college education or provide a solid down payment at four-year colleges and universities. The President also is proposing a $10,000 tax deduction for any tuition after high school, an expanded IRA to allow families to save tax-free for college, and the largest increase in 20 years in Pell Grants for deserving students.

• Help adults improve their education and skills by transforming the tangle of federal training programs into a simple skill grant. Learning must last a lifetime, and all our people must have the chance to learn new skills. Basic literacy and adult education are more important than ever for adults as well as children. Adults should take on the responsibility of getting the education and training they need, and employers should support their efforts to do so. The President's G.I. bill for workers would provide a simple skill grant that would enable eligible workers to get the education and training they need.

• Connect every classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000 and help all students become technologically literate. Our schools must now prepare for a transition as dramatic as the move from an agrarian to an industrial economy 100 years ago. We must connect every classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000, so that all children have access to the best sources of information in the world. The President is proposing to double the funding for America's Technology Literacy Challenge, catalyzing private-public sector partnerships to put the information age at our children's fingertips. CEOs of some of America's most innovative technology and communications firms have already responded to the President's challenge to work with schools to get computers into the classroom, link schools to the Internet, develop effective educational software, and help train our teachers to be technologically literate.

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