![[ Home ]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081108064634im_/http://www.ed.gov/icons/EDhome.gif){kind=icon}
To the students who just sang to us from their hearts -- to Sidney and David and Anh and Zelmie -- how very proud we are of all of you and your classmates. You are the future of our country; you give us hope and strength.
I am grateful to Terrel Bell for his very kind introduction. American education owes a debt of gratitude to Terrel Bell for his foresight and leadership. We are on a new course toward excellence and high standards in American education, in large part because of Terrel Bell's good deeds a dozen years ago.
Today, I am honored to make my second annual STATE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION ADDRESS here at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington, Virginia ... to tell you that we are no longer a nation at risk, but a nation on the move ... a nation turning the corner, raising its standards and reaching for excellence for the 21st century.
It is so appropriate that we should come together at a school named in honor of Thomas Jefferson -- the president who wrote to John Adams that he could "not live without books," and the founder of a great American institution of higher learning, the University of Virginia.
Were he alive today, I have no doubt that Jefferson, ever the scientist and inventor, would be, at this very moment, in the computer lab uplinking to the Internet's World Wide Web.
But Jefferson would have to be quick because the classrooms and computers here at Thomas Jefferson are always in use. This school is a community bursting with energy and learning, day and night. Thomas Jefferson is a school that reflects many of the new dynamics shaping the future of American education.
We are, for example, in the midst of another baby boom. In the next ten years, an additional 7.1 million children are going to get up in the morning and go to school. Another 7.1 million children.
And at the same time that we are helping these brand new students become part of America's strength, we must raise standards and teach Americans of all ages some very new and demanding skills.
Now, every child still must learn the basics. I am a great believer in the fundamentals. You simply can't get ahead if you cannot read, write and figure out how much change the checkout clerk should give you. But in this day and age, using computers and recognizing the discipline of the arts and the power of science all have to be seen as new fundamentals for all our children.
This is a critical time for American education ... a turning point.
So what, then, is the state of American education today given these and other new dynamics? I believe that we are, at long last, turning the corner ... moving from being a nation at risk to a nation with a hopeful future. We are starting to win the battle for excellence and good citizenship in American education.
Why am I becoming optimistic? Student performance in reading, science and math is on the rise, and we have made up much of the ground we lost in the 1970s. The number of high school students taking the core academic courses is increasing, up 27 percentage points since 1983, and still rising. Many more students, particularly minority students, are participating in the advanced placement process.
The dropout rate has declined in the last decade, and young people are getting the message that graduation from high school is only the stepping-stone to more learning. There is a new seriousness and appreciation for the value of education. The percentage of students attending college is higher than any other developed country. Community colleges are filling up as never before. And our great institutions of higher learning still produce world-class graduates.
Now, we still have many problems. Overall achievement is still too low. The dropout rate for our Hispanic youth is too high; the gap in performance of African-American, Hispanic, and poor children is still too large; violence in some schools remains a destructive force; too many college freshmen are still in remedial classes; and I am increasingly concerned about a growing trend to de-emphasize the value of our nation's wonderful system of higher education.
But all across America there is great energy and commitment to the progress of education. In Colorado, Governor Roy Romer has taken the lead in calling for high standards and comprehensive reform. In Massachusetts, Governor Weld is using Goals 2000 money to support the creation of charter schools.
In Minnesota, thousands of parents are signing compacts to improve their children's learning. And the Parents-as-Teachers (PAT) program in Missouri continues to add value to education by having parents help other parents.
In Columbus, Ohio, Project Discovery is leading a statewide effort to improve math and science instruction. In Illinois, a new technology initiative now links public schools to scientists at Northwestern University.
Good work is being done in many states to design tougher standards for our young people and establish real accountability. And, two weeks ago, 81 middle school teachers received the first national certificates for meeting the most rigorous of standards.
Kentucky, a state that has done so much in school reform, is now reporting dramatic improvement in mathematics, reading, science, and social studies based on their new, challenging academic standards.
We are starting to see a difference. Above all, we are starting to overcome the greatest barrier to the future of American education: the tyranny of low expectations.
And the intensity of activity at the state and local levels is being matched by the strong bipartisan commitment of Congress and President Clinton to put excellence back into American education.
Passage of the GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA ACT; the creation of a new SCHOOL-TO-WORK OPPORTUNITY ACT; our new direct lending program; our new substantial investment in technology; the refocusing of our research arm; the SAFE SCHOOLS ACT; the creation of AmeriCorps; and the expansion of Headstart are all part of the national effort to move American education forward.
So I am pleased to report to you today that just eight months after the President signed Goals 2000 into law, 44 states are now moving forward in designing -- from the bottom up -- an education system for the 21st century.
Goals 2000 is the driving force behind the ongoing effort across this country to raise standards, to get technology into the classroom, and to make sure that we set high expectations for every young person, every teacher and every parent.
I want to emphasize that Goals 2000 is the very model of how we can help the states and local schools without smothering them with regulations. Our Department of Education has decided to have no regulations governing this $400 million program -- no regulations - - and the state application form is just four pages long. But accountability is there -- by testing to high state standards. About 98 percent of all the funding in Goals 2000 goes directly to the states and in its second year, 90 percent of all funding will flow directly to local school districts.
I want to take a moment to speak directly to the critics of this most important piece of legislation. I am not an advocate of a "national exam;" nor am I an advocate of federal intrusion into state and local decision making. I did not come to Washington to save the job of a bureaucrat or to defend old ways of doing business.
I am a strong supporter of applying ample doses of American ingenuity and creativity to our educational system. We need to encourage ideas such as charter schools and public school choice; be flexible and recognize that students learn in many different ways; and carefully think through how we use time in the school day.
But we must always have accountability in public education -- for the sake of both the children and the American taxpayer. Accountability is so important. That is one important reason why I do not support the "silver bullet" solution of using public tax dollars for private school vouchers.
Above all, we need to avoid the trap that has so often befallen American education: the inability to maintain a sustained drive for excellence. Too often we get distracted by the fad of the moment. What we need now, more than ever, is some old-fashioned American tenacity to stay on course.
And, I will tell you this -- if we roll back the GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA ACT ... if we get off course now ... just when we are turning the corner and giving states and communities the help they request in the form they need it, well then, where will we be? One place we will be is out of step with the American people.
The American people believe in education, and they believe it should be made a national priority. They know that education is an act of building -- the building of people, the building of our nation, and the building of our future.
Every poll that I have read drives home this essential point: the American people want to invest in education that works. The results of the November election do not tell me that the American people want to go backwards. There is nothing that tells me that they want cuts in student aid for college, nor that they want Congress to cut education that helps the American people become more self-reliant.
I pledge my full cooperation to the new Congress. We will make an honest review of what federal education programs are working and which ones have seen their time come and now must go.
But the need to reduce the federal budget deficit must be balanced against our need to invest in America's future. The reduction of the deficit and investing in education are two of the most important and essential ways we can secure this nation's prosperity. In this new Information Age, education must be seen as a national priority.
Nothing so exemplifies the progress this nation has made in the last decade than the six special guests who are here today. In 1994, these six students -- all from public schools -- represented this country as the American team at the 35th International Mathematical Olympiad.
These young Americans did something quite extraordinary. They defeated the very good teams of 69 other nations -- and they won with perfect scores. Their victory is surely a personal achievement -- and a victory for their teachers, parents, coaches and for all Americans.
But it is also a reflection of the serious work that has been done in the last decade to achieve a new standard of excellence in American education. The first professional group to produce new academic standards were America's math teachers. My Department and other federal agencies have kept a sharp focus on advancing math and science education, and it is beginning to pay off.
So it is my great pleasure to present to you the six winning members of the American math team and their coach, Doctor Walter Mientka of the University of Nebraska.
These young Americans clearly represent our very best. Most of them are already in college, and I have no doubt that each of them will achieve and succeed in life. But they are not alone in wanting to advance themselves. Millions of young Americans know the score already: to get ahead in America, you need to have a first-class education.
This is why we really do need to reinvent the American high school -- to create new, concrete links to the world of work and careers -- and why access to higher education has got to remain a national priority.
We intend to maintain and increase our commitment to the Pell Grant program because it is an essential statement of our commitment to higher education.
And, we are very proud of our Department's efforts to create and maintain a new direct lending program for college students. This is a program for the 90s. Recently, an American University student told me that she had received her direct loan in 24 hours and at a lower cost ... and that last year under the old system, it had taken three weeks.
College presidents are placing a high value on this program because they know that it is working. This program will save the taxpayers $4.3 billion and save students $2 billion by 1998.
I encourage the Congress not to "cap" a program that is making college more affordable and accessible -- and saving taxpayers money. Every college should have the choice to provide the benefits of this program to their students.
But we need to do more. For the first time in generations, parents are truly worried that they will not be able to pass on the American Dream to their children. And they are not alone. High school and college students know that they have but two choices: they can work longer hours for less pay, or they can get a meaningful education.
Our economy has added almost 6 million new jobs in the last two years, and many of these require new thinking skills. The economy of the future will be -- and already is for millions of Americans - - an economy based on what you know and on the skills you have. And we need everybody to build America's future.
This is why education is the very centerpiece of the President's proposed Middle Class Bill of Rights. The President's proposals to allow a tax deduction for college tuition, to expand IRA withdrawals for education, to create a $2,600 skills grant that empowers working Americans and a $500 child tax credit -- are all part of the same effort to make sure every American has a chance to be part of the American Dream.
I urge all of the parents who are thinking ahead about your children's future, to sit down at the kitchen table, talk this proposal through and understand its details. And when you do, you'll understand that President Clinton's proposal is a good one.
Now, a word of caution. I am concerned that in the rush to cut budgets, we can do unintentional but very real damage to the jewel of the American educational system -- our system of higher education.
Increasingly, state leaders seem to see higher education as a budget item to be cut rather than as a long-term investment in the future. The federal government, which for much of the 1980s increased its funding for basic research, will be hard pressed to maintain this capacity. And, all of us in Washington -- in both the executive and legislative branches -- have come close to over- regulating over the years.
Nothing defines these new pressures more than the current budget- cutting proposal in the Congress to eliminate the "in-school interest subsidy." Now, that's a complicated way of saying that if you lose your subsidized student loan -- and there are 4.4 million of you who would -- you are going to have to pay about 20 percent more on your student loan -- as much as $5,000 more over the life of the loan if you borrow the maximum that is allowable. That's a lot of money.
This is the wrong way to go. We're not going to build up the middle class by charging students who are trying to get into or stay in the middle class $2 billion extra a year in interest. If this proposal goes through, it will be the largest reduction of financial aid to working American families in the history of this country.
As we seek to turn the corner, we need to recognize that many young people remain disconnected -- growing up on their own -- often alone -- and in some cases -- truly alienated. Last year at this time, I spoke about my very real concern that this disconnection is becoming so pervasive that we were losing touch with one another.
Nothing defines this disconnection better than the increasing violence BY our children, and the increasing violence TOWARD our children. I try hard to understand the causes, but this I know for sure: the American people have had enough.
Now, the great majority of America's schools are safe and drug- free. But we cannot ignore the reality of our times. Guns are being brought to schools as tests of manhood. Drugs are being used with greater frequency and at earlier ages. And a $7 movie ticket is all too often a ticket to see a killer use a gun.
Strong families and schools with high expectations remain our first lines of defense against the spiritual numbness of violence. When 82 percent of all the people in this nation's prisons and jails are high school dropouts, surely, that fact alone should tell us something about the importance of high-quality and safe schools in every neighborhood.
It is not hopeless. The Robert E. Lee High School in Houston, Texas, and the Joseph Timilty School in Roxbury, Massachusetts, are two schools that have turned themselves around. These schools have set high academic standards; they have attacked the culture of violence head-on; and they have involved parents and the community to get results.
So we must keep our focus on ending the violence. We passed the SAFE AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS ACT last year. And if you bring a gun to school, don't expect much sympathy -- because you are not playing by the rules.
But we need to do more. This is why Attorney General Janet Reno and Doctor Lee Brown, our nation's Drug Czar, will join me in the coming months in visiting different communities to encourage and work with people to end the violence.
And our message to Hollywood is clear and simple: help us raise our children right by ending this fixation that entertainment must always contain violence. By the time young people reach age 18, they have watched 25,000 murders on television alone. Stop glamorizing assassins and killers. I urge you to see this issue through the eyes of parents instead of scriptwriters ... through the eyes of teachers instead of advertisers.
Sit down with community leaders, principals, PTA presidents, and the doctors in the trauma units who are struggling so hard to protect the children and mend their communities, and use your power to reach children in a helpful and supportive way.
Our young people are searching for clearly marked pathways to adulthood that are appropriate for the '90s. In some troubled neighborhoods, gangs have almost replaced the family in laying out a new path to adulthood. And what a terrible path it is -- an act of violence, a first arrest, expulsion from school, a place in juvenile hall, time spent in prison and sometimes death, and all before they are 20 years of age.
This is why I continue to place great importance on supporting the American family. Last year on this occasion, I announced a new effort to encourage parent involvement in the education of our children. As I said at that time, "thirty years of research tells us that parent expectations and parental involvement" is the starting point for improving American education. Parents matter.
Today, I can report to you that more than 100 organizations, including the national PTA, the U.S. Catholic Education Association, the National Alliance for Business, and the Boys' and Girls' Club of America, are actively participating in our Family Involvement Partnership for Learning. There is great energy in this effort.
I am pleased by the support we are receiving from the American business community. And I am deeply encouraged by the religious leaders of many faiths who came together last December to release a "Statement of Common Purpose" articulating their common desire to find new ways to support family involvement in their children's education.
I believe there is an enormous desire on the part of the American people to have new rules of public engagement when it comes to relating to each other. There seem to be fewer rules of basic rightness and, increasingly, no rules of civic discourse. A young student might willfully disobey a teacher or cheat on an exam and think nothing of it; an ambitious politician can distort the truth or defame the character of another and be rewarded with more media exposure.
Listen, in contrast, to these words from a pledge that young people take every day at school in Independence, Missouri: "I am the one and only person who has the power to decide what I will be and do. I will accept the consequences for my decisions. I am in charge of my learning and behavior. I will respect the rights of others and will be a credit to myself, my family, my school, and my community."
I believe this is what the American people want for their children. And I agree with them.
So what does this mean for those of us who are part of the public dialogue about the future of American education? We need to get beyond the idea that everything in America is part of a political game. We are not educating our children as Republicans, Democrats or Independents, but as Americans, and as the future of our great country.
We need to lower our voices, to listen to one another and surely to listen to our parents and teachers. There is a difference between constructive criticism and the articulation of deeply held convictions -- and the tendency by some to define just about everything in public education as useless and at the extreme, even "corrupt."
As we look to the future, let us also recognize that we live in a time of great learning and technological achievement. New discoveries by the Hubble telescope are leading astronomers to rethink the very age of the Universe, even as we marvel at the recent unearthing of 20,000-year-old prehistoric paintings in caves in Southern France.
Scholars are deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls and the technology of virtual reality is helping to teach disabled children how to drive wheelchairs. Machines the size of molecules are being created by dedicated scientists to heal the sick, and scientists are announcing that they have isolated the DNA of dinosaurs. It is all rather extraordinary.
Dr. Pat Graham, the former Education Dean at Harvard, wrote in her book, "In this nation, we have never had a 'golden age of learning.' We have had a golden age for some," she said, "but not one for the nation."
If ever there was a time for this great nation of ours to have a "golden age of learning" for all of our people, now is the time to have it -- to create a new ethic of learning -- a new standard of excellence.
Now all this is going to take some decisionmaking, and here, I want to end by telling you a story about a funeral I attended when I was governor of South Carolina.
The deceased was an elderly lady named Katie Beasley. Katie Beasley was a sharecropper, the mother of six or seven children, who spent her entire life just getting by. At her funeral, an old friend stood up and said that he had spent a good long while trying to think through what made Katie Beasley so special -- how it was that she had so little and yet all of her children got an education, got good jobs and were community leaders themselves.
And he had decided, after a great deal of thought, that what made her special was that she was a decisionmaker. This is what he said: "Katie decided that an education for her children was important, and she was determined to see that they were all educated. She never looked back."
We are at a time for decisionmaking in this country. If we believe, as Katie Beasley believed, that education is a serious matter, and that all of our children must be educated, we too can be successful. It is a matter of having the human spirit to believe in ourselves as a people -- and to make the decision to move forward. Everything is in place to educate America -- and I think we will with your help.
Thank you.
(A handout was distributed during the press conference pertaining to the speech.)