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

                        ********************                         REMARKS PREPARED FOR                           RICHARD W. RILEY                      U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION                      ***************************                   NATIONAL HISPANIC LEADERSHIP SUMMIT                           WASHINGTON, D.C.                      Monday, September 19, 1994

I am so pleased that Puerto Rico will be among the first in the Nation taking our new Goals 2000 legislation to the grassroots. Puerto Rico will be the site of the first local Goals 2000 conference in America this December.

And that is how it should be, because school reform doesn't happen from the top down but instead from the bottom up -- when teachers, parents, educators and the entire community come together to strive for excellence. I look forward to this conference and have already accepted Governor Rossello's kind invitation to be its keynote speaker.

It is my great pleasure to be here with all of you tonight at this very important conference for Hispanic-Americans -- and indeed, for all Americans. For it is my very strong belief that your ability, as leaders, to harness the drive, creativity and determination of the Hispanic-American community is simply good for this country.

There are four very important people here tonight on whom I count to help me run my Department. Norma Cantu, Director of our Civil Rights Office (130 litigating attorneys under her; a very large law firm); Dr. Gene Garcia, Director of our Office of Bilingual Education (one of my chief advisers); Margarita Colmenares, who is my direct connection to American business on all matters; Alfred Ramirez, newly appointed Director of the White House Initiative for Hispanic Education; and Maria Santiago Mercado who represents the Department as my Regional Representative in Region II in New York City; Mario Moreno who has been nominated by President Clinton for Assistant Secretary for Office of Interagency and Intergovernmental Affairs.

My wife and I have just come back to Washington from South Carolina where we took part in the wedding of our son, Ted. It was a wonderful family affair. It is not often that we are given the opportunity to see four generations of the same family come together around a ceremony of joy and happiness.

My father -- whom we call "Mr. Ted" -- who is now 94 -- was able to see his grandson and namesake walk down the aisle with his new bride. So my family is a very blessed family. We are indeed fortunate and during the long weekend of festivities I reflected on the many things that have happened in my son's life.

How Tunky and I did our best to raise him and how he kept us busy because he had a habit for favoring recess. How we got involved as parents with his elementary school -- Augusta Circle. Tunky went on to become President of the PTA at the school. And I have spent a good many years in public service committed to the idea that educational excellence is achievable for all of our children.

So from my own personal experience and from my many years as a public servant, I have come to the sure conclusion that the family is the rock on which a solid education can and must be built. I have seen examples all over this Nation where two-parent families, single parents, step-parents, working parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are providing strong family support for their children to learn.

This is the reason why I recently released a major national report called "Strong Families, Strong Schools" which gives us a picture, in great detail, of how important parents are to their children's education.

Thirty years of research tell us that the starting points of American education are parent expectations and parental involvement. The driving force that helps children to succeed in school and to go on to college is a family's expectations for that child.

This consistent finding applies to every family, regardless of the parents' station in life, their income or their own educational background. You do not have to have a Ph.D. in math to make sure that your children take the gatekeeping courses that set them on the road to a higher education.

The report also told us that many families -- including many Hispanic families -- face major obstacles in their efforts to make sure their children do well in school. Some of these obstacles are well known to all of us -- the pressure of time -- with so many parents working two or three jobs just to get food on the table -- language barriers between the school and the home -- for some, the sheer utter drag of poverty.

But to me, the most troubling of all the obstacles that Hispanic- American families encounter is the feeling that so many of them are not being truly welcomed into our educational system. There is no welcome mat at the school door that tells parents that they and their children are the true clients of our educational system. They do not feel valued and served, and too often they find education jargon to be a putdown.

A member of my staff recently came back from meeting with several parents in Los Angeles. He told me the story of a Hispanic mother, who went to her daughter's school on the first day only to be talked down to by an insensitive teacher when she entered the classroom.

This is wrong -- this is not the right way to go. We cannot raise expectations -- and tell young Hispanics to stay in school -- if, in the very same breath, their parents and families are being given the cold shoulder.

This is one of the many reasons that I announced a new Family Partnership for Learning just a few weeks ago. A partnership that recognizes that parents who are working two or three jobs are stretched to the limit and need our help. A partnership that recognizes that nothing will really get done for our young people if we do not convey to their parents how much value we place on their commitment to their children's education.

This partnership, led by the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, includes such groups as ASPIRA, the U.S. Catholic Conference, National Council of La Raza, MALDEF and the Hispanic Policy Development Project, and seeks to speak with one voice in saying that our educational system needs to open up its doors and find new ways to include parents in the process of educating children.

Parents -- including Hispanic-American parents -- must be at the table when it comes to public education and every smart educator knows this is the right way to go. The good work in Texas of Ernie Cortez of the Industrial Areas Foundation and Gloria Rodriguez of Advance are some examples of what can be done when true parent power is at work.

I say all this with some passion. It makes no sense to me that hard working parents working two or three jobs to support their children are told that their children cannot learn to high standards ... that they should not aspire to go on to higher education or college.

This is why I am so determined to work with the Hispanic leadership represented here tonight -- to tell you that the President and I will do everything we can to ensure that all of our children -- including millions of Hispanic-Americans -- get their fair chance at fulfilling the American Dream.

In the next ten years, almost six million additional young people will enter into our Nation's public school systems and many of these young people will certainly be Hispanic-American. This new demographic bulge -- not unlike the baby boom bulge of the early 1970's -- will put enormous new pressures on the American educational system.

And I, for one, am terribly concerned that we do the right thing by these young people. We cannot be satisfied when so many young Hispanic-Americans are dropping out of school and too many of those who do graduate do not get the opportunity to on to college. We cannot lose this generation of children. They are too important to the future of this Country.

Yes, they are the workforce and leaders of tomorrow. But we do not want to educate them for second-class jobs when they have first- rate minds. Let us give these children the education they deserve -- that will allow them to work in bio-tech labs, in the rapidly developing health care field -- and as college professors, bankers, lawyers, Governors and members of Congress.

The President, as you know, signed an Executive Order last February creating the new White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic-Americans. It is my great hope that this Commission - - under the able leadership of Chairman Raul Yzaguirre, President of the National Council of La Raza, its Vice Chair Ana Margarita Guzman of Texas A&M University -- will become a driving force for Hispanic-American excellence in education.

The Commission will be meeting later on this week. I encourage the Commission to focus its attention on three critical areas of importance.

First, work with us at the grassroots in our new Family Partnership for Learning to make sure that all young people have the opportunity to learn to high standards. It has been my experience that Hispanic-Americans seek the very best education for their children. They have high hopes and we must work to make these hopes a reality.

Second, work with us to open the educational pipeline so that every Hispanic-American who can go to college does go to college. We have been working hard to increase funding for bi-lingual education (Title VII of ESEA), to reform Title I to better target its funding, to increase the funding for it, and to make sure Hispanic youth have full access to it -- and we have already put in place a new direct lending program at the college level to make higher education more accessible.

But there are many more obstacles that we need to sort through together. I encourage the Commission to keep a sharp focus, to tune in and sort out those two or three issues that can make the difference. This, in many ways, may be the real challenge and work of the Commission as it begins its proceedings.

Finally, I encourage you to help me to inspire and to enable as many Hispanic-Americans as possible to give a few years of their time back to this community as teachers. We need culturally and linguistically sensitive teachers, who have a fire in their heart to demand the very best of their students.

Teaching is one of the most demanding of all professions and sometimes one of the most thankless -- but teaching is always important and worthwhile. But with millions of young people entering our schools, we have an urgent need to recruit more Hispanic teachers who will go back into the classroom and teach. We need their help, their energy, and their spirit.

Ten years ago, a good education was the necessary calling card for success. Today, a good education is an absolute imperative. Without a good education, a young person can grow up to be a tragic and unhappy figure. Ten years from now, can you imagine the problems and inequity -- indeed the crisis -- when the millions of young people who are entering our education system find themselves without the skills and learning that they need to get ahead?

This is why I am urging our parent organizations, religious communities, civic organizations, community groups, and businesses to come together to help our schools create a positive moral climate and a culture of learning. A culture of learning that commits this country to a first-class education for every child rooted in the basic American values of democracy, honesty, self- reliance, hard work, and respect for the civic responsibilities of all Americans to participate in our democracy.

I want Hispanic families all across America to know that we are with you in this effort. The President and I want you to know that our entire Administration is on your side. Families are not alone in their efforts to raise their children to follow the Golden Rule, to be good citizens and to learn to high standards.

As the President said on signing the Executive Order last February, "Our Administration has embraced your cause and seeks to support it."

More parent involvement, safer schools, improved teaching, high standards, better results, a reach for excellence, and a respect for languages and cultural diversity -- a real preparation for life's challenges ahead. This is the sum and essence of how we can achieve excellence in American education for all of our children.

And, you have my personal pledge that I will do all I can to open up every door possible -- to make sure that every Hispanic-American who walks into a classroom gets the first-class education he or she deserves.

Thank you.