SECRETARY PAIGE: You just heard from the President today we marked the first anniversary of a new area in education in the United States. So, Happy Anniversary, everybody.

We have with us a lot of guests. We have four state chiefs with us—Richard Mills from New York, Susan Zelman from Ohio, David Driscoll from Massachusetts, and Bill Maloney from Colorado. Representing Susan Reed from Indiana, Jeffrey Zearing and Wesley Bruce. Thank you all for joining us. (Applause.) We have some outstanding principals, and we're glad to have you here as well. This time last year, our nation embarked on an historic journey, a journey to educate not just some of the children but all of them. Whole, unabashed. A goal to educate all of our children.

Our nation has done a great job educating some of the children. There are a lot of schools that are celebrating one or two or three of our graduates going to prestigious universities but paying little notice to the large numbers of young people who are going nowhere because of inadequate education and fundamentals.

We've embraced the hopeful vision of a great president, President Bush, who feels that education is a sacred civil right, and it is our duty as a nation to ensure that every child in our public schools get a good education, which sets them on the right path, not only educationally but also for life.

To accomplish that noble goal, the No Child Left Behind Act provides an historic level of funding. Between 2000 and 2002, 49 percent increase, and still there are those who are making excuses and still crying about more money that has been clearly ineffectively used for funds that have been available.

But this increase in funding is connected to accountability. It's an investment, not just spending. Over the past several decades, our nation has invested trillions of dollars, local, state and federal dollars in education. Yet, student achievement remains flat. This president targeted the funds where it is needed most.

Whether the product is reading or rockets, results matter, and to get results we have to measure. Now the law of the land says schools will tell us how students are doing, so parents—dads and moms—teachers, community people, and business people will know that schools are teaching and children are learning.

And, by the way, just to be clear, a new poll released today by the Americans for Better Education shows that 91 percent of Americans feel this is the right path, so we're not going to deterred.

In category after category, they support the President's vision. For example, the majority of Americans support testing. The majority of Americans support testing. The majority of Americans are worried about the high number of children who are at school who can't read.

The majority of Americans believe that schools should be held accountable for student performance; and, more importantly, across the board in every demographic section, the majority of Americans, 66 percent, believe that high standards and accountability are more important right now than increased funding.

It's been a heck of a year, and it's been a good year. It started when the ink was barely dry on the new law, when we met with school chiefs at Mt. Vernon, the historic place, to begin this journey. To begin to reach out to those practitioners on the front line who are actually going to have to do this.

When schools change, they will be changed by not those of us here in Washington inside the Beltway so much as those who walk up and down the halls of the buildings and look into the eyes of the children and to the practitioners that will be respected here—the teachers, and principals, and superintendents, state school chiefs, and other supervised guidance. So we are going to be soliciting inputs from them and acting as partners in this great mission.

We started with the meetings of the state school chiefs in Mt. Vernon. We addressed hundreds of phone calls and faxes, hundreds of requests for information. We provided timely advice on our web site, and hundreds of pages of regulations and guidance and Dear Colleague letters.

I personally traveled to 30 states and 56 cities; delivered nearly 150 speeches last year about this new law. Meeting with parents and educators and community leaders. All told, this Department has been engaged in more than 1,000 outreach efforts over the past year.

So I want to take a minute to thank the staff of the United States Department of Education. I want to personally applaud them for the work that they have done because I think it has been spectacular. (Applause.)

Within 11 months, in this short period of time, with the most complex education law ever written, all of this has been accomplished. Congratulations and Happy Anniversary. You deserve to be proud.

The No Child Left Behind Act is the most complex, sweeping, education reform that our nation has ever undertaken. Yet, I'm proud to say the Department has produced guidance and regulations with great speed, and in a more comprehensive manner than any other reauthorization—ESEA reauthorization since it first became the law in 1965.

Now all of our hard work has paid off, and we're off to a start, but only a start. The finish is when every American child has a great education.

Earlier today, it was our honor to sign off on the accountability plan for five states—Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, and Indiana. These states heard the President's call to leave no child behind. They seized the moment and became a part of the solution. They are the doers.

They looked at the law. They met with the people in the state and local levels, and they developed strategies and partnerships with the Department to get the job done, to get results. They didn't spend their time whining, they spent their time working.

Plans from states must meet clear objective criteria. It must be based on the law, and these diverse states met the criteria.

President Bush believes that local communities must be free to teach what works. Local schools know what's best for their children. What works in Colorado may not work in New York. Our role here in Washington is not to dictate. Our role is to set clear goals and guidance, and to hold states responsible and accountable.

Each of these states looked at their children's educational needs and stepped up to the bat. We are appreciative for that attitude. The deadline is not for another three weeks, let's be clear; and, yet, they've finished. They have already submitted their plan, they have already won approval, they're already on their way.

A primary reason why they're the first ones out of the shoot is because they believe that every child can learn. This is the fundamental part of this law. Every child must receive our best efforts.

The President has promised that educating every child is not just a talking point, it is an expectation to be worked towards. It was that way when he began this, it was that way when he signed this bill on January 8th last year. It is that way now, and I just heard him say it will be that way as long as he's President of the United States of America.

Educating our children is the most fundamental and most important thing that we can do as a nation, and each and every one of us—educators, parents, community leaders, those in public lives—must be, to borrow the President's words, absolute warriors on behalf of our children.

So we enter this new year, one year down, 11 to go, to get this job done. I believe it's going to get done. One reason I believe it's going to get done is because of the high quality of the people who are helping get it done.

I'd like to have you hear from some of them. Let's begin with the outstanding leader in Massachusetts, the State Chief there, Dave Driscoll. David. (Applause.)

MR. DRISCOLL: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. After hearing all of the work you've put in and the trips you've made, et cetera, and all the hard work, I think it's time to say Happy Anniversary to you. (Applause.)

I'm very pleased and proud to be one of five states, and one of five chiefs that have had our plans approved and many other chiefs that are working feverishly to get their plans approved.

I want to, as the Secretary did, pay tribute to the staff of the Department of Education who worked hard. I don't know how they did it. When you think about the tremendous number of hours they spent just in our state going back and forth, a very complex law, and then to have to do it five more times and now forty-five more times, and a great tribute to the staff of the U.S. Department of Education.

To me, the Secretary said it well, as did the President. This is about the fundamentals of this legislation, and let's not kid ourselves. The implementation of this law is going to be difficult, and in some ways unpleasant, and in many ways uncomfortable. It's going to be uncomfortable to all the adults in our school systems—parents, teachers, administrators, superintendents, and chiefs—because it's going to shine a light on what is happening to every one of the children in our school system.

As the Secretary said, that's not always been the case. We have 75,000 fourth graders in Massachusetts. In the next eight years, they'll go through to the 12th grade. 75,000 kids. How many of those kids will have the opportunity at the end of 12th grade to really enjoy the benefits offered in this great country.

And for too long we've played the statistical game of only so many students being able to really take advantage of that opportunity.

So this law is the right law, and it's going to make us all very uncomfortable, and that's a good thing, because we're being made uncomfortable for the sake of all students.

So I can't say I look forward to implementing this law, on the one hand, but on the other hand, I do look forward to seeing every one of our children served for the first time, and so I'm very pleased and proud to be here today. We've got a lot of work today, we've got a lot of shifting of our thinking to do, but we can't rest.

The President calls it the soft bigotry of low expectation. I often it call it, for some kids in our communities, the tyranny of inevitability, and we've got to break that so that all children can achieve at high levels.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

SECRETARY PAIGE: David represents the chiefs. Now representing the principals is Ms. Bernice Whelchel, the principal of City Springs Elementary School, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Applause.)

MS. WHELCHEL: Thank you. This is an excellent opportunity to be here today, and I'm just so happy to know that the No Child Left Behind Act will support what my colleagues have done in their school and to know that it's important to look at every child, every child as a successful child, with high expectations, high expectations in all academic areas, and if we do that, we will know that we have accomplished our goal of what every citizen should have here and what every parent should have—successful, happy, educated children.

The No Child Left Behind Act talks about research-based curriculum, and it's so important to make certain that we train our teachers and all of our community volunteers to work with our children, to ensure that they are successful.

I am just so pleased, Secretary Paige, and I'm just so happy to know that this law will do what we know should be done. Thank you. (Applause.)

SECRETARY PAIGE: Before I respond to your questions, I want to introduce two of the best partners any Secretary ever had, the Deputy and Undersecretary. (Applause.)

DEPUTY SECRETARY HANSEN: I think it's important to note, as the President noted today, of the significant resources that have been hitting the streets this last year with this new law and the fact that we had a 49 percent increase in spending to help implement this law, and he's made it very clear that with the resources plus the reforms, we'll get the results that we're looking for.

I think it's also important to note that this is built upon about a 120 percent increase over the last six years, so we have clearly been adding the additional resources, especially at the federal level, the federal commitment has been almost three, four times of the magnitude of the increases at some of the state and local levels, and we've really been trying to do our part at the federal level to make sure we do have the resources to implement this new law.

It is also coupled with some other very expanded opportunities in higher education where the President's tax cut bill last year provided another $23 billion over the next five years in tax assistance for both K through 12 and higher education, as well as additional billions of dollars in student loan programs, and the lowest interest rates ever for student loans, 4 percent this year, to make sure that higher education is also available and accessible to all students in this country.

With that, Gene.

UNDERSECRETARY HICKOK: Just real briefly, you will hear a lot in the coming weeks and months about money. That's what this town tends to talk about.

When you think about it, though, education is about people. It's a human enterprise. It's about ideas and individuals making the difference; and, to be honest with you, the people behind me right now and thousands of their colleagues all across this great nation know that what matters most, more than any face on any dollar bill, are the students in the classrooms and their teachers, the administrators, and their parents, and the Board members. It's about ideas and individuals coming together. We need to remember that as they do.

Frankly, it's also about leadership. These five states, these principals, are men and women who recognize the importance of what they do, and that the time of making excuses, creating rationales or apologies, is behind us.

So I think most of all on this anniversary day, we should say, once again, thank you to those who individuals and their colleagues across this nation. We're going to make the idea of No Child Left Behind. (Applause.)

SECRETARY PAIGE: I want to personally thank Gene and Bill for their leadership and their commitment and for the work that they have done on behalf of America's children.

So we'll respond to your questions now. Members of the press, we invite your questions. We'd like to get into an interchange about some of the concerns you might have.

We want to be able to communicate to Americans that it is possible, it is absolutely possible to create in this great nations schools worthy of this great nation, and that is going to require us doing things differently, and I think we're willing to do that.

So we invite your questions.

QUESTION: Could you just clarify preliminary or final approval of these plans, and what about states that aren't yet disaggregating, but are they pledging to do that in the future? How does that work?

SECRETARY PAIGE: No, these are plans, and the plans are we are approving the plans. So what they are making, with the commitments they made in their submissions, their plan, to do these things, they are to be done yet, but they have identified what is necessary to be done in order to be in compliance with the law and have submitted strategies and techniques and willingness to do it, and that's what we've approved. So now we're on the journey to see about getting it done.

January 31st is the date that all states should have submitted their plans. These five states are well ahead, but there are many other states well ahead.

One of the requirements of the law is that each state have the assistance of a peer review committee, identifying people who go out and assess and look.

We're backed up on that somewhat, and we've got to get that done, otherwise, we might have had several other states here ready to go forward.

QUESTION: How many states have submitted so far?

UNDERSECRETARY HICKOK: Only five at this point and time have submitted their plans, we have other states getting ready to go through the process very, very soon.

SECRETARY PAIGE: Yes, sir.

MR. KELLY: Mr. Secretary, Matt Kelly with the Omaha World Herald. I was hoping you could address the 45 states who are not represented on the stage, some of which have voiced some hesitancy about changing testing systems, which they believe work, Nebraska being one of those.

Are any of the states falling behind at this point in time, to a point where they may not be able to catch up, and is Nebraska one of those?

SECRETARY PAIGE: We don't know that. In fact, some of the states standing here who submitted their plans and have had them approved, also addressed some concerns, and we had discussions and different points of view about how things should be done, but we reached agreement by us becoming partners with them and working with them.

So we expect that there's going to be change in dialogue with all of the states. America has a very highly-diverse education system. There are 50 states, one district, and, what, five or six territories? 95,000 school districts. They're all governed independently.

I'm aware of the noise that you hear, and I expect that the decibel levels may even be elevated, but in the final analysis, I expect that all of them are going to come in and they're going to work well.

But, by the way, there's some interesting language in the law. It simply says, almost every paragraph begins with those receiving funds under this law. Well, they can make their own decision about that. (Pause.)

SECRETARY PAIGE: We can't even coax some money questions out of you? (Laughter)

(No audible response.)

SECRETARY PAIGE: Okay. Thank you so much.

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