Thank you, Curtis, for that introduction. And I thank Provost Herman Howard for the invitation to be here. I know he's worked hard to get everyone here today.

I know President Burnett is retiring soon after more than 32 years at the helm, and I want to commend him for his long and productive tenure.

Carmen Russo—the CEO of Baltimore's schools—is also here. And I'd like to thank you for all your hard work. It showed when one of your schools—City Springs Elementary—was singled out for recognition by President Bush at the White House when we celebrated the first anniversary of our new education law, No Child Left Behind.

I brought someone else with me today whom you all know: Ambassador Spearman. He is our director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs.

We are pleased to be here. This is my second visit to your lovely campus. The last time was last summer when I attended an education conference.

As I was preparing to come here, I was thinking about this year's theme for the national celebration of Black History Month—The Souls of Black Folk—100 years.

And it struck me that that really is just the right focus. The great author and activist W.E.B. DuBois was a man who believed deeply that societies rise and fall depending on how well their people are educated.

He wrote with courage and conviction and absolute certainty that—as he once put it: "Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States."

DuBois spoke those words nearly 100 years ago. But they just as timely today. Maybe even more so.

One of the greatest injustices in our great country has been an education system that, for too long, found it perfectly acceptable to teach only some students well while the rest—mostly minority and mostly low-income students—floundered or flunked out.

Our federal government poured lots of money into the system. Over the past 30 years, Americans have spent trillions of local, state and federal tax dollars on education. But test scores remained flat. Think about it:

The most recent snapshot of urban fourth-graders shows:

• 74 percent were not proficient in reading.
• 79 percent were not proficient in math.
• 78 percent were not proficient in science.

The most recent snapshot of urban 12th-graders shows:

• 84 percent were not proficient in math.
• 83 percent were not proficient in science.

It is undisputed that American students still lag far behind their European and Asian counterparts in math, science and technology.

And who's very often bringing up the rear of the rear?

African American students.

We're about to mark the 20th anniversary of A Nation at Risk—the landmark study that first alerted our nation to the growing achievement gap between those who have and those who don't.

Yet despite waves of well-intentioned school reform efforts over the years, too many children—mostly urban and mostly African American—are still falling through the cracks.

President Bush looked at all this evidence and he said: This is unacceptable. We are creating two Americas—one that dreams and one that doesn't.

And so, this time last year, our nation embarked on an historic journey together—a journey that embraces the president's hopeful vision that says, education is a civil right. Just as much a civil right as the right to vote or to be treated equally. And it's the duty—not a suggestion but a duty of our nation to teach every child, not just some children, well.

No Child Left Behind rests on four pillars:

• Accountability.
• Local control.
• Options for parents.
• Research-based instruction that works.

President Bush targeted funding to where the need is greatest. And over the past year, we've made good progress. Then we reached a big milestone on Jan. 31 when every single state submitted its accountability plan on time.

This is a huge accomplishment. I've been in education a long time, and I've never seen so many people working with such single-minded purpose as what's happening now all across our country.

And a recent poll by Americans for Better Education shows that 91 percent of the American people think we're on the right track.

President Bush's 2004 education budget will ensure that we stay on track—so every public school in America can be a place of high expectations and a place of high achievement.

Despite all the things competing for our tax dollars—strengthening our economy, defending our nation and expanding opportunities for all Americans—the president's budget provides $53.1 billion for the Department of Education, which includes the largest dollar increase of any domestic agency.

If approved by Congress, the president's plan provides historic levels of funding for children most in danger of being left behind by providing a:

• $1 billion increase for Title I assistance in high poverty area schools—for a total of $12.4 billion.
• $1 billion increase for IDEA—for a total of $9.5 billion. That's a 50 percent increase in special education funding since the president took office, and the highest level of federal funding ever for children with disabilities.
• $1.9 billion increase for Pell Grants—to $12.7 billion—to help ensure greater access to a college education for nearly 4.9 million disadvantaged students.

These three increases comprise about one-third of the new domestic discretionary dollars the president is seeking for his entire domestic agenda.

No other domestic agency has three programs receiving such monumental increases.

Our new education reforms depend on teaching every child to read, and this budget increases funding to more than $1.1 billion for the president's Reading First and Early Reading First programs.

DuBois said: "The foundations of knowledge in this race, as in others, must be sunk deep in the college and university if we would build a solid, permanent structure."

And President Bush believes that HBCUs are critical to building the strong foundation of which DuBois spoke. And his budget reflects that commitment by:

• Increasing funding to $224 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

President Bush also named an HBCU commission a year ago to advise him on how to strengthen our nation's 105 historically black colleges to keep them viable long into the future. One of the members of the Presidential Advisory Board is the Chancellor of the University of Maryland System, Bill Kirwan.

Our HBCUs must endure. Their legacy of learning must be passed on to future generations.

So as we honor the memory of DuBois, I can think of no better place to start than by recommitting ourselves to the cause of educating every child. There are many things we can do.

Sign up and mentor a child. I just helped President Bush launch a $450 million initiative to rally more than a million adults mentors to make a real difference in the lives of youngsters, who can, in turn, return the favor by helping someone else someday.

Become a teacher. This very college began for the express purpose of turning out teachers of color. Founded by a black woman—Fanny Jackson Coppin. And I can think of no more noble profession than that of teacher. And you have a great tool with which to work: the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

But you don't have to be a teacher to teach. Partner with us—like Dorothy Height and the National Council of Negro Women and many others are doing—to achieve the president's goal of teaching every child to read by third grade.

Reading is the skill upon which all others depend. Our prisons are filled with people who never learned to read. So if you're looking for a place to invest your time and your talents, volunteer at your local elementary school and read to the children. You will not leave there uninspired.

Mary MacLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women put it best when she said: "We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends."

As we work to part the waters so everyone of us in this great nation can live the American dream, let us help one another. And the place to start is by making sure that we do everything in our power to make sure that every child is educated. No excuses.

In the words of W.E.B. DuBois: "Now is the accepted time. Not tomorrow. Not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year."

Thank you.

Top