More Resources  No Child Left Behind  Secretary Rod Paige

Thank you, Governor Owens.

Bill is one of many Colorado officials I have had the chance to work with since I became Secretary.

Last year, Wayne Allard did great work on the conference committee of No Child Left Behind. And more recently, I've enjoyed working with Tom Tancredo and Bob Schaffer on the President's education tax credit, another way of expanding access to good education to disadvantaged children.

It is good to see so many educators and government officials interested in education. You heard from a great list of experts this morning, and I hear you had some good discussions.

When our country is at war, it is easy for educators—and our students—to get distracted from our mission of education. We worry about the soldiers in Afghanistan, and we worry about our own safety. But while the soldiers pursue the war against terrorism, the President has made it clear he wants us to press on with improving student achievement. So I thank all of you for being here. The need to teach our children and the need to improve instruction are important year after year—come feast or famine, war or peace.

This state understands that. In this new era when so many people are responding to President Bush's call for more accountability in public education, you have taken some dramatic steps in Colorado. You should be proud in Colorado of your progress and your continuing commitment to leave no child behind.

For example, you have a good system of online report cards for public schools. Objective school report cards are in the President's No Child Left Behind law, and I'm delighted you are already giving Colorado's parents this information in a convenient form.

I also want to thank your governor for being tough on colleges of education. One thing I learned as superintendent in Houston is that the biggest factor in what goes on in a classroom is not the number of kids or their textbooks or budget, but the quality of the teacher.

The way colleges of education are run has a huge impact on the quality of teachers. So congratulations, Governor, for raising the bar of expectations for Colorado's kids.

As you know, many American high schools teach George Orwell's great novels 1984 and Animal Farm. You may not know that he coined the phrase "a power of facing unpleasant facts."

We may not want to know that our children are not learning what we think they are learning. We may not want to know that the school down the street is not as good as we hoped it was.

But the only way to address these problems is to know about them. The only way to improve education is to have the power of facing unpleasant facts. We should embrace that power. Parents deserve the truth, and I am glad the government of Colorado believes in giving them the truth.

Yet, even in Colorado, there is more to do. So, even as I thank you for what you have done, I must ask you to do even more. Our battle is yet to be won, our task is still undone, and we have miles to go before we sleep.

There are many excellent schools in America, but they are islands of excellence in a sea of under-achievement. We are educating some of the children very well. But educating some of the children very well is not our goal.

Our goal is to educate all of the children well. With some great schools we move some of the students forward, but we leave many children behind. And the children most likely to be left behind are the children most in need.

While we have many good schools, and even some great schools, our current public school system, on the whole, has failed America's poor and disadvantaged children and, therefore, failed America. Consider a few examples:

Almost two-thirds of American fourth graders cannot read at grade level. This is not only an urgent challenge in our schools, but a public health problem with major consequences and costs.

Less than one child in eight who cannot read by the end of first grade ever catches up to grade level. Almost two thirds of low-income eighth graders cannot multiply or divide two-digit numbers. There is also a wide and persistent achievement gap among ethnic groups.

Our education failures are also a national security issue. You may have heard of the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century, co-chaired by former senators Warren Rudman and Gary Hart. On February 15, 2001, the commission issued its Phase III Report, Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change.

The commission was chartered to conduct a comprehensive examination of the structures and processes of the United States national security apparatus and to make appropriate recommendations.

Although several of the Commission's recommendations have particular relevance to educational organizations, two recommendations are staggering.

First, the commission said, "Second only to a weapon of mass destruction detonating in a American city, we can think of nothing more dangerous than a failure to manage properly science, technology, and education for the common good over the next quarter century."

Second, the commission said, "The capacity of America's education system to create a 21st Century workforce second to none in the world is a national security issue of the first order. As things stand, this country is forfeiting that capacity."

Some say these failures are caused by inadequate funding. There is no doubt that additional resources are needed. That is why the President's 2002 budget gave the Department of Education the largest percentage increase of any federal domestic agency, and larger than the Department of Defense. And that is also why, despite our slowed economic circumstances, and despite our war against terrorism, the President's 2003 budget contains even further increases in resources for education. But the facts don't support the proposition that a lack of resources fully explains our education failures.

Between 1996 and 2002, federal discretionary appropriations for the Department of Education increased 113 percent, from $23 billion to $48.9 billion. In the past three and one half decades, the federal government has spent more than $200 billion on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) alone, while student achievement has remained relatively flat. Student performance in reading today is not substantially different from that of 1984. Spending increased sharply, yet student achievement remained flat.

Notwithstanding the current situation, educational excellence is within our reach. Our problems are difficult, but not insurmountable.

Our solutions start with the most important change in the federal role in K-12 education since 1965. It is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act has been reauthorized before, but this law is different. It is the vision of a President who has done it in his own state—I was there with him. When he says No Child Left Behind, he means it literally.

It is also the product of a bipartisan Congressional effort. Both Democrats and Republicans support this bill.

You don't have to be a political scientist to understand the power of Ted Kennedy and Judd Gregg, from the opposite ends of the spectrum in the Senate, reaching agreement and working together to make this bill happen. Representatives John Boehner and George Miller spent their careers throwing rocks at each other. But last year, they also came together. I was there, and I saw it, and I wish you could have seen it.

Some of you went through "hell week" in college. This was a "hell week" that lasted six months. But it produced the same results in terms of bonding and cooperation. As a result of their work, this is not a Republican law, and not a Democratic law; it is an American law.

It shifts the federal role from spending to investing. It turns Title I from a blanket of sympathy into a tool for success. It asks States to set clear standards and it measures progress through tests aligned to those standards.

As you've started to do here in Colorado, the new law brings visibility to the process through reporting of state, district, and school results to the public. Under No Child Left Behind, failure cannot be swept under the rug.

The new law has consequences for failure. Schools that fail to make adequate progress for two or more years will provide other options for parents and students.

In other words, this law has punch. There's no place to hide.

When President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law on January 8, he ushered in a new way of doing business in American education. He brought to the public a new demand.

A demand that says: all students—regardless of race, all students—regardless of wealth, all students—regardless of LEP status, must be held to the same high academic standards and helped to meet those standards.

Not only are Democrats and Republicans working together, the federal government is now an ally of the States. In America, we have a federal system, where the States created the federal government, so I can't give orders to any of the state or local officials here. I wouldn't want to. But as someone who was involved in the making of the law—and as a former superintendent—I hope you will let me offer some advice.

To the superintendents, my former colleagues, the most important thing I can say is this: You know you need an expert on the new law. Make yourself that expert. Don't delegate the job of learning the law to your Title I administrator, your general counsel or your deputy for government relations. Do it yourself.

Learn all of the deadlines in the new law, because I will be strict in enforcing them. Understand that this law gives you many new tools. I offer my help—and my Department's help—in using them. Make sure your principals get test data on their students, and make sure they use it to help the students who need help.

To the principals, my advice is this. You set the tone for your school. You affect the culture. Set a tone of achievement. Build a culture of no excuses.

I know some of your schools serve "demanding" populations, and I also know that schools have discovered how to win tremendous results in your circumstances. When you talk about your school—when you think about your school—your message should be not why your students haven't improved, but why your students have improved, and why they will improve next year.

If you run an elementary school, make sure your faculty uses reading instruction that works. Make sure your children read well enough to enjoy it. Research has taught us how children can best learn to read, and how to identify teaching methods that really work.

If you run a high school, make sure your goal is not a graduate with a diploma, but an American with a good education.

If you serve on a school board, set high goals for students and give your superintendent the flexibility to achieve those goals.

If you are a legislator, make sure your state law advances the principles of No Child Left Behind.

You face a choice today. The people in this room hold different jobs, but together you can make the difference for Colorado. That's why I call on all of you to join me, join President Bush, join Congress, and join many other Americans in making sure every child in America gets an excellent education.

I know you want to achieve this goal. I know you have the skills to achieve this goal. Through H.R. 1, the President and Congress have just given us the tools and laid out the roadmap.

The next few years will be exciting for all of us, and the difference in our children's lives will be immense.

Last month, we celebrated the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, and his words about the judgment of history often remind me of the significance of our task. As he said, "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.... We—even we here—hold the power, and bear the responsibility.... We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

We cannot recover the years that were wasted on an education system that has failed so many children, but we can recast the future of that system. The No Child Left Behind law shows us the way. If we earnestly enact its reforms and vigorously pursue its goals, we will create schools worthy of the next generation of Americans.

It is our charge. It is our responsibility. It is our honor. And it is within our power. If we set our minds and our hearts to it, we shall nobly save the last best hope of earth.

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