A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

I am delighted to be here during Hispanic Heritage Month for the culmination of the work of the President's Advisory Commission.

I've been invited to speak about "What Is at Stake" in our efforts to create public schools where Hispanic Americans have access to a quality education. The short answer is that the stakes are very high.

The sheer numbers make this abundantly clear. In less than 25 years, one in four students in our public schools will be Hispanic. Imagine denying a quality education to more than 6 million public school students in the United States. Or imagine that we ignore the needs of 30 percent of the students in the American West. That's what will happen if we don't do everything we can to provide an excellent education for Hispanic American children in our public schools.

On the other hand, if we are successful in providing a quality education to Hispanic Americans, we will help millions of citizens to thrive, we will strengthen our economy, and we will become a stronger, more democratic nation.

Once we recognize that the stakes are indeed very high, we're led to the next question: "What should government do to help our nation meet this challenge?" First, Congress should pass an education budget that can help Hispanic students and all students have the kind of quality the educational opportunities that every child deserves.

The administration's budget proposal would help to meet this need. We have proposed to:

• Hire 100,000 new, well-trained teachers in order to reduce class size;
• Support high-quality teaching;
• Expand after-school programs for remedial work or enrichment;
• Provide tax-credit bonds to fix crumbling schools and build modern, well-designed buildings;
• Close achievement gaps through substantial increases in bilingual programs and Title I grants; and
• Provide mentors and tutors to help disadvantaged students go to college.

If we can make the right investments now and make effective programs available to more students, we will go a long way toward closing the achievement gap and helping more Hispanic Americans graduate from high school and continue on to college.

Second, we should do everything possible to make sure the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans will continue. The report Creating the Will: Hispanics Achieving Educational Excellence presented to me today exemplifies how valuable the commission's work is. The report offers specific examples of efforts that work. It gives us a blueprint of how all of us can get involved in improving education for Hispanic Americans.

The commission's efforts already are making a difference, but it's important that public officials continue to get good advice and guidance to meet our goal of providing a quality education for every child. The commission's work can help us ensure that Hispanic Americans have opportunities not just to be proficient, but to excel.

But to achieve excellence, it won't be enough just to pass a good education budget. It won't be enough if Hispanic American children can just read English and master arithmetic, as important as this is. And it won't be enough if the graduation rate for Hispanic Americans rises just a little.

We need to have much higher expectations of our Hispanic children. We need educators and parents who, when they see a Latino child-or any minority student, see the astounding potential of that young person. We all need to recognize the potential for great achievement and recognize that there are Hispanic children who are capable of becoming an astronaut like Ellen Ochoa, or a Nobel Prize-winning chemist like Mario Molina, or a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist like Oscar Hijuelos.

We can help all children make the most of their lives by forming strong partnerships and by working together to create the best possible schools. That means modern facilities with up-to-date technology and excellent teachers who challenge every child-every single child-to do his or her very best.

I am grateful to each of you for your work on the initiative. I realize that this "culminating event" is not the end of your work on behalf of our nation's children but part of a continuing effort. And knowing that your commitment to better education for every child will continue, I am very optimistic about the future of Hispanic education and the future of our nation.

Thank you very much.