Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us at this luncheon today. I would like to thank the Center for Education Reform for its role in arranging this event. The Center has been tireless in its efforts to promote educational choice nationally. This type of forum, which brings people, who are interested in and committed to charter schools and educational choice, together to share ideas and experiences, is the kind of action that I think has been so helpful to the whole reform movement. And I would also like to commend the Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement for all the good work you are doing in this community. Your good efforts have already made such a difference in providing new hope and new opportunities to students who so often are not served well and do not prosper educationally when they do not have access to the choices made available through high-quality charter schools. On behalf of Secretary Paige and the other senior officials in our Department, I really offer my sincere thanks and support for what you are attempting and accomplishing out here.

This is, of course, National Charter Schools Week, so it is falling to me, as the head of a new office that administers the Federal charter schools program, and fosters and administers other initiatives designed to expand parental choices, to convey the message about the importance of charter schools, the results they are achieving, and the role of charter schools in the overall framework created by the No Child Left Behind Act. I do want to put in a brief plug for my office, the Office of Innovation and Improvement. Its establishment marks the first time that the Department has put in one place both responsibility for administration of the educational choice programs, such as charter schools, magnet schools, and the new "Voluntary Public School Choice" program, and responsibility for overseeing implementation of the choice-related requirements of Title I. My staff and I spend a lot of our time thinking about choice, how it can be supported, how its impact can be measured, how it can be infused into other Federal programs. For example, we have been working with Congress on the choice incentive initiative that the President included in his fiscal year 2004 budget proposal, and we are hoping that it will be enacted this year.

The programs we administer play a vital role, I believe, in supporting the charter school movement. When the Department's Public Charter School program began, back in 1994, there were only a handful of charter schools in the whole country--mostly, as I recall, in Minnesota. Today there are nearly 2700, and the number continues to grow. Our program provides people, who have a vision for creating schools that adopt new methods of engaging children to drive up achievement, or in some cases use some tried and true methods, with the planning and start-up funds that they need to bring their dream to fruition.

The Bush Administration strongly supports this program, and we also recognize that obtaining adequate facilities is typically, along with obtaining start-up funds, the biggest impediment to launching a charter school. That is why we also strongly support the Credit Enhancement for Charter Schools program, which was created under No Child Left Behind. This program makes grants to public and nonprofit entities, which in turn assist, through credit enhancement activities, charter schools in obtaining financing for facilities or in leasing facilities at reasonable rates. We prevailed upon Congress to fund this important program this year, and recently announced the competition for the funds. The deadline for applications is June 3. If you have not yet seen the application notice, I urge you to do so--it is on our Website--because I think the program can provide very significant benefits to charter schools in this community.

As I am sure all of you know, what we are really all about these days in the Department is the No Child Left Behind Act, the historic legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush a year ago January. No Child Left Behind created an entirely new vision for the Federal role in elementary and secondary education and, we hope, for educators across this Nation of how they think about educating all their children to high standards. Charter schools fit squarely within that vision, which is one reason the Administration is so supportive of them.

No Child Left Behind is first of all about holding schools accountable for results. Accountability has been one of the key principles undergirding charter schools since they began. No Child Left Behind says to all public schools, "If you cannot demonstrate, based on assessments and other academic indicators, that you are making genuine progress in the education of your students, including the categories of students that have so often been overlooked in the past, then there must be consequences. Something serious must happen." Charter schools have always lived under such a "produce results or else" mandate. They were conceived of as a means by which exciting educational ideas could be tested, without hindrance from the normal rules and regulations, but if the tests did not show positive results, a charter would be terminated or very significantly amended. Now all public schools that participate in the Title I program, something like 55 percent of public schools nationally, will be under a similar mandate. They may have something to learn from charter schools in how they manage during this period. Some of them, as provided for in the law, may even want to become charter schools, as a way of emerging from the old order and turning themselves around.

No Child Left Behind is also very much about educational choice, and charter schools are, of course, one of the principal means through which States have begun to provide more choices to families. Under the Act, Title I schools that do not make what is called "adequate yearly progress" -- which basically means reaching a goal for the number of students who achieve the "proficient" level on State assessments--must develop and implement school improvement plans. They must also offer their students the opportunity to enroll in another school that is making "AYP." The school district must provide students who elect to transfer with transportation to the new school. The statute is very clear that the options provided to students in this situation can include charter schools. I urge the charter schools in this community--both the schools that are under the jurisdiction of the LA Unified School District and the independent charter schools--to become a part of the choice programs offered pursuant to this Title I requirement. I know that many charter schools have waiting lists, but where you do have capacity, even if that might mean adding additional classes or expanding in other ways that you might not have considered at this point, you might think about taking advantage of this opportunity to serve more families who want what you have to offer.

No Child Left Behind includes a number of other choice-related provisions beyond the Title I requirements, such as authorizing the competitive programs administered by my office. The law also requires States to give children who attend persistently dangerous schools the opportunity to attend a safe school. This provision, when it is fully implemented, will also result in more families seeking a change of school, including a change to a charter school.

Another theme of No Child Left Behind is flexibility, a principle that is, of course, near and dear to the hearts of all charter school developers and staff. The Act gives more public schools the opportunity to use their Title I dollars for schoolwide programs, under which they can concentrate on raising the quality of the entire school, rather than identifying and pulling out individual children for special services. It gives States and districts authority to move funds freely among the program categories, so that they can use Federal funds to support local reforms and address local needs. And it extends, to a number of districts and States, the opportunity to throw out almost all the rules in exchange for a commitment to show results and show them quickly. Again, this is the type of contract that charter schools have always operated under, and charter schools should be able to show others the way in terms of how a school can succeed under that sort of agreement.

I should also mention that No Child Left Behind emphasizes the notion that every child in every public school should be taught by a qualified teacher. More specifically, beginning this school year schools could hire, to teach in Title I programs, only teachers who met a statutory definition for being "highly qualified." The Act also sets a goal that all teachers of the core academic subjects, in all public schools, be highly qualified by the end of school year 2005-2006.

The definition of a highly qualified teacher is a bit lengthy, but basically it requires a teacher to hold a bachelor's degree, to be certified by the State, and to be able to demonstrate (through completion of an academic major or passage of a rigorous test) subject knowledge and teaching skills in the subjects he or she teaches. For teachers in charter schools, respecting their special situation, the law and the Department's guidance do not require that they have State certification; instead, the State's requirements regarding the qualifications of charter school teachers govern. However, the other elements of the statutory definition--holding a baccalaureate and having strong content knowledge and teaching skills--do apply. As you continue your efforts to bring charter schools to Los Angeles, you will want to be aware of these requirements, to think about how you can meet them, so that your schools continue to be eligible for Federal assistance.

Those are only some of the major themes and provisions of No Child Left Behind--probably about as many as I can cover in my time before you. I do urge people in this audience to get in touch with my office and Department if you have any questions about it. We know that the law is long and complicated, and that there are a lot of implementation issues.

In closing, I want to extend, a second time, my support for what the Alliance is doing in Los Angeles. "Transforming Education in Los Angeles," the recent report by WestEd, the Department's west coast regional educational laboratory, said that changing the system and serving all children well will require a new network of charter schools that foster innovation and offer opportunities. It said that this network should feature strong and explicit learning goals and accountability measures; ongoing professional development on best practices and research-based strategies; and outreach and community capacity building. My understanding is that that is exactly what you are doing. The WestEd report is thus a powerful validation of your efforts, your campaign to bring LA's children the best possible education. What more could we possibly ask of you?

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