Contact: Lindsey Kozberg 202) 401-3026

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A few years ago, you helped pioneer the debate about school choice, and you continue to encourage this dialogue today. For the important work you do on behalf of our students, I want to thank you.

Too many of them shuffle students through the system and into a society for which they are totally unprepared. Too many of them slap a degree into the hands of their graduates without giving them the skills to find a good job.

Ten years ago, organizations like yours won the intellectual battle over accountability and parental choice. Policymakers can no longer argue with a straight face that government is better than parents at ensuring that every child learns. So now, you might well wonder, where is the free and open competition that we agreed on?

The President and I were disappointed when Congress stripped the bill of private school choice. I suspect many of you were as well. But the bill is still the biggest education reform in 35 years, because it sets in place a culture and structure of accountability that opens the way for greater and more meaningful experiments in choice, flexibility, and competition. School choice and school accountability are not distant reform strategies, they are two sides of the same coin. A good accountability system based on parental choice exposes failing schools while celebrating good schools. The era of getting people to think about schools in a new way begins this year.

What the President has done, with his plan and with this bill, is to start a new conversation. It's not a conversation with policy wonks. It's not a conversation with politicians. It's a conversation with the American people about improving results. The more Americans think about schools in terms of results, the more we will get results. The more Americans think about student performance instead of school compliance with government red tape, the better students will perform. The more Americans hold schools accountable, the more our schools will be accountable. So this effort is about changing the way Americans think. The rest will follow.

The President has also changed the way Washington thinks. A couple of weeks ago, his plan sailed through the House of Representatives with a bipartisan vote of 384 to 45. I expect the Senate to pass the plan soon. The President and I are proud of the support the bill has garnered from both sides of the aisle, and we have every reason to believe that when our children return to school this fall, they will return to a system that is well on its way to the President's goal of No Child Left Behind.

The Manhattan Institute understands that families play a central role in their children's healthy progress, including the progress of their education and of the system that educates them. No kind of accountability is more effective or attentive than the accountability of parents.

Parental accountability requires parents to have control, good information, and meaningful options. The plan helps states create annual tests aligned with their curriculum, so parents know how their schools are performing. One of the groundbreaking parts of the President's program is that for the very first time, parents of children in failing schools will be able to remove their children from chronically failing public schools and send them to better public schools'and they will be able to use federal funds to pay for the transportation there. Parents can also choose to apply these funds to supplemental services from private organizations, such as tutoring. A year ago, no one would have predicted that Democrats would support a bill that expands school choice, but thanks to the President, they have. When this bill becomes a law, parents in America will have more educational choices for their children than ever before. That is a significant victory.

Nowhere is the strong connection between school accountability and parental choice more evident than in the charter school movement, which exposes the myth that parents are not interested in choice. Nearly two-thirds of charter schools have waiting lists almost half as large as their school's enrollment. They offer meaningful options for parents and their children--particularly those children who would otherwise be left behind in low-performing schools.

You didn't invite me here to make news, but I think I will. I want to take this opportunity to release two new Education Department reports on the effects of charter schools on public school systems.

The first study asked the question: how do new charter schools affect a school district? One of the selling points of charter schools when the concept was first introduced was that they would not only provide better education for their students, but would improve the whole system by adding competition and innovation. So the Department of Education did a study to find out if this promise was true. I can announce today that the promise is true.

The study looked at 49 school districts in five states and discovered that all school districts responded to the arrival of charter schools. Naturally, districts that were very large or protected from losing money by state laws reacted in only minimal ways. But districts that lost significant numbers of students reacted with positive changes. Many complained about losing funds and students to charters. But the districts that felt the most pressure made the most effort to win back children and families. The good news is that charter schools do not just help the students they serve directly, they also prod the entire system to improve.

The districts studied are responding to competition by listening to parents, adding programs at other public schools, and more closely examining student achievement to determine what needs to be done to improve it. This means better schools for all our children.

The second report is the first extensive, nationwide study of charter school accountability. Charter schools represent a special bargain between the school and the state: in exchange for stricter accountability standards, charter schools enjoy more freedom from state rules and regulations. As a result, the schools are judged based on performance, not on how well they follow the rules.

Researchers spent two years studying 150 charter schools, interviewing school staff, state officials and representatives of 60 state and local authorizing agencies regarding accountability measures. They concluded that external accountability--the need to maintain the confidence of the school's overseers--promotes internal accountability--productive relationships among teachers, administrators, and students. In other words, school accountability leads to school improvement.

The charter system was the first to try this accountability model. It usually takes the schools several years to figure it out, but it can be done, and when it's done right, it works.

The President's education proposal, No Child Left Behind, will move all public schools towards a focus on results and away from concentrating on rules and regulations. Charter schools are leading the way by illustrating that the best way to gain confidence of families, teachers, and supporters, is to focus on quality instruction.

The charter system is not perfect. On the other hand, almost every criticism leveled at charters also applies to district schools, but the difference is that failing charter schools can be shut down, and we've seen this happen. Indeed, the closing of failing charters was part of the design from the beginning. Of course, charter schools are start-ups, and the President recognizes that they face many of the same start-up challenges, such as finding facilities and hiring staff. The President's solid support for charter schools, coupled with bipartisan Congressional backing, will help expand public school choice and provide more options for children and parents. In turn, districts will respond with improved student achievement. On Tuesday, the Senate approved the charter school homestead fund to help charters with their initial hurdles. In addition, President Bush has asked Congress to appropriate $200 million for the growth and development of charter schools.

The education bill is not the only way the President would give families more choices. His tax cut gives families more control over their children's education by giving them more control over their money. The bill increases the tax credit from $500 to $1000 per child. Another is an expansion of education savings accounts. This provision, which was vetoed twice by President Clinton, quadruples from $500 to $2000 the amount of money a family can invest each year in special tax-free accounts. For the first time, families can use this money not only for college, but also for tuition at private and religious schools. This shift will mostly help middle class students, but it also endorses the concept that tax-free accounts can be used for private or religious elementary and secondary education.

Don't misunderstand me. The President and I will not be satisfied until parents of children in failing schools have access to every available alternative. We support expanding school choice to include as many options as possible, including private school choice. We were disappointed on Tuesday when the Senate rejected the Gregg amendment to give $50 million to states and districts for school choice programs. But we are proud that school choice is being discussed seriously at the highest levels of government and that 41 senators of both parties supported the amendment.

The President took office promising to change the culture of public education in America. Almost five months later, by establishing a new framework of accountability--one in which those closest to the problem, the parents, wield the most power to change it--he is doing just that. Make no mistake: these bills empower parents to shake things up in the public school system.

Ladies and gentlemen, the status quo is changing. We are redesigning the entire model for accountability in our school system by giving parents more and more control over their children's education. And the more control we give them, the more they will want. Little by little, we will up-end failing schools, and replace them with schools whose mission is to serve their students and their parents.

This is an exciting time for America's students. We are building a school system based on accountability, and an accountability system based on parental control. The President and I are proud of the bipartisan consensus we have achieved on a range of education issues, including school choice. As the national conversation about education reform continues, we in government will take direction from people like you. Our public school system is on the verge of revolutionary change, and we are well on the way to achieving the President's goal of No Child Left Behind.

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