"All of us—from the federal government to the states to the districts to schools—must do a better job of reaching out to inform parents about their options." "This law calls on us to pony up and live up to our responsibilities. And when we don't, there's a day of reckoning." "We must empower parents to demand more from our schools."

		More Resources Photos National Assessment of Title I: Interim Report

Jamaica, N.Y. — U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today delivered remarks at the school choice forum at the Greater Allen Cathedral in Jamaica, N.Y. She discussed public school choice options and tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act and America's Opportunity Scholarships for Kids proposed by President Bush. Following are her prepared remarks:

I want to thank the Reverend Flake for welcoming us here to the Greater Allen Cathedral. Wherever he's gone, from a seat in Congress to this pulpit, Reverend Flake has looked for new, innovative ways to solve problems and expand opportunity.

That's why he started the Allen Christian School. It's a school that sets high standards for every student, and I want to give a special thanks to all the members of the school choir for their inspiring performance.

I wish Governor Pataki could have been here today instead of being grounded by bad weather. He's been a warrior for students here in the Empire State. He's fought to raise standards in our schools and to give parents more options by raising the state cap on charter schools and by providing an education tax credit to help families pay for private school or tutoring. As someone who used to work for a governor named George W. Bush back in Texas, I know that the real action in education reform happens at the state and local level. And governors like George Pataki are leading the way with bold, innovative ideas.

Being here in New York, I hope you don't mind if I share one of my favorite sayings from back in Texas, where the Reverend and I both grew up. The saying goes, "If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got." And until every child can read and do math on grade level, all we ever got won't be enough. Not by a long shot.

As a mom, I don't think it's too much to ask that my children leave the third grade reading and doing math at the third grade level. And I'm pretty sure almost all parents feel this way regardless of where they live or how much money they make. They want to send their children to schools that have high expectations and high standards. And when schools fall short of these standards, we must give parents options.

And no administration in history has done more to put choice on the books for parents than this one led by President Bush.

• When schools don't live up to their responsibilities, we've empowered millions of parents with new options such as transferring their children to a higher-performing public or charter school or enrolling them in free tutoring.

• We've worked with states and districts to expand public school options by supporting the growth of charter schools. In 2001, there were only about 2,000 charter schools nationwide. Today, there are more than 3,600 serving over a million students.

• In Washington, DC, we've launched the first-ever federally funded opportunity scholarship program. We've given almost 1,700 low-income students in DC the chance to attend the private or parochial school of their choice.

• But most importantly, we've armed the parents of 48 million public school students nationwide with the information to be smart educational consumers and become real advocates for their children.

It used to be if a parent asked how a school was doing, we couldn't really answer the question. We had almost no data and no benchmarks for success. That's why when we passed our landmark education reform law, the No Child Left Behind Act, four years ago, our first priority was to help states develop strong accountability systems and high standards for all students. We set a historic goal to ensure every child in this country—regardless of race, income, or zip code—can read and do math on grade level. And we gave ourselves a deadline to do it by 2014 because parents have waited long enough.

We've started collecting data every year on how well students are doing and how well schools are serving them. And we're sharing this information with parents. I like to say, "In God we trust; all others bring data." That's especially fitting in a place like this.

Across the country, we're seeing some great results, especially in the younger grades where we've focused our efforts. Our country's education report card shows reading scores for 9-year-olds have increased more over the last five years than in the previous 28 years combined. In states like Delaware, Kansas, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, schools are on track to meet our 2014 goal. And here in New York, for the first time ever, a majority of African American and Hispanic fourth graders are meeting state standards in English.

These results are a tribute to the success of schools like P.S. 45 here in Queens where students and teachers are working harder and smarter than ever. Many students are even coming in for extra help on Saturdays. And whenever you have kids coming to school on Saturday, you know you're doing something right. The hard work is paying off. The number of fifth graders reading and doing math on grade level has doubled.

Schools like P.S. 45 are a shining example for schools all across the country. They're helping to dispel the myth that some students can't learn or that it's impossible to raise achievement in our inner cities. We know that's not true. If we raise the bar, our students will rise to the challenge.

Over the last four years, we've learned a lot about what works in our schools and what doesn't. And we've reached a point where we're starting to face some tough decisions about how to fix schools that are falling short of standards year after year. We're committed to working with states to help turn around these low-performing schools.

But at the same time, we have a responsibility to give parents and students in these schools lifelines to help them now. That's why No Child Left Behind gives parents options like public school choice and free tutoring. These options are unprecedented in federal education law.

And I'm encouraged to see more and more parents taking advantage of them. The number of kids in free tutoring programs increased fivefold in just the first two years of the law. And here in New York City, about 80,000 low-income students have enrolled in free tutoring this year alone.

But we still have a long way to go. We're nowhere near satisfied with the overall participation rate. Last month, I met Dana Rone, a school board member in Newark, who has taken matters into her own hands. She launched a door-to-door campaign to help notify low-income parents about their options. Her campaign has helped enroll thousands of students in free tutoring. That's incredible.

But not every city has a Dana. And too many parents never hear about these options because they don't see the letter that comes home in their child's backpack or they can't attend the informational meeting at the school. All of us—from the federal government to the states to districts to schools—must do a better job of reaching out to inform parents about their options. And we must work with community groups and faith-based organizations to help spread the word. I want to thank Bishop DiMarzio from the Diocese of Brooklyn and Rabbi Weinreb from the Orthodox Union for being here and for their commitment to helping students.

Today, my department released a new report that showed only 17 percent of eligible students nationwide signed up for free tutoring. And of the four million students in the country eligible for school choice, only 38,000 students—less than one percent—actually transferred to a higher-performing school.

More than half of school districts didn't even tell parents that their children were eligible for these options until after the school year had already started. That delay makes it virtually impossible for students to transfer schools without disrupting their education. And that's unacceptable.

As some of you know, recently, two advocacy groups filed a complaint against two California school districts for failing to give parents the chance to take advantage of transfer options. And while I can't comment on the specifics of the case, the fact that we're even talking about holding districts and schools accountable shows No Child Left Behind is doing exactly what it's supposed to do.

This law is meant to shine the spotlight on how well districts are serving students and parents. Without No Child Left Behind, we wouldn't know which schools are falling short of standards ... we wouldn't know who is eligible for options under the law... and we wouldn't be able to hold school districts accountable when they fail to deliver those options to parents. This law calls on us all to pony up and live up to our responsibilities. And when we don't, there's a day of reckoning.

I'm asking Henry Johnson, who heads the office of Elementary and Secondary Education at my department, to take a very close look at how well states are complying with these provisions of the law. We want to ensure that districts are living up to their responsibilities to notify parents about their options in a timely and easy to understand way. And there are a number of steps we can take to enforce these provisions, including withholding federal funds.

At the Department of Education, we've already been working with states and districts to improve participation. For example, last year, we launched new pilot programs with Chicago, Boston, and Virginia to help more students enroll in free tutoring. We're studying the results of these pilots closely to help us find the best ways to increase participation rates across the country. In Newport News, Virginia, for example, 62 percent of students eligible for free tutoring signed up this year—up from only 23 percent last year. That's almost a 200 percent increase. I'm looking forward to using what we learn from Newport News and other districts to help expand options for parents all over the country.

We still have a lot of work to do. In some districts, public school choice is non-existent because no public schools are meeting state standards and waiting lists for charter schools are out the door. I've heard stories about parents cramming into rooms like this one to draw numbers to see which students will make it off the waiting list. You shouldn't need to win the lottery to send your child to a high-performing school.

We must stop rationing opportunity by arbitrarily limiting the number of charter schools we allow. Parents want options. And we all benefit from them. Charter schools improve education for everyone in the system, especially students. They're laboratories for new educational strategies that can eventually help raise achievement in all our public schools. And they're even more accountable for results than traditional public schools because parents have a choice and when charters fall short of standards, they can be closed.

Last year, I visited the KIPP Academy Charter School in the South Bronx. The school takes students from the poorest neighborhoods in New York, but it's been the highest performing public middle school in the South Bronx for eight years in a row. That's a better winning percentage than the New York Yankees. And 80 percent of KIPP graduates end up going on to college. It's no secret why either. KIPP students work harder and longer. The attitude is: "No shortcuts, no excuses."

We've all heard the excuses for why things can't change, but we didn't get where we are as a nation by saying things were impossible. If we are going to meet our goal of having every child at grade level by 2014, we must empower parents to demand more from our schools.

We've seen the power of choice in Washington, DC, where the first-ever federally funded opportunity scholarship program has given low-income families the same choices other Americans have. Almost 1,700 disadvantaged students have received grants of up to $7,500 to attend the private or parochial school of their choice.

Third grader Eric Brooks is one of those students. He was struggling with reading and wasn't getting the help he needed. His aunt, Catherine Hill, says he used to get only two out of ten words right on spelling tests. Catherine couldn't afford private school, so she took her case to Congress and helped push Democrats and Republicans to pass the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Today, Eric has a scholarship to attend a Catholic private school, and he's reading on grade level. And I'm proud to report he gets almost every word right on his spelling tests.

The DC Opportunity Scholarship Program is only in its second year, but the early results with students like Eric are encouraging. President Bush and I want to help spread this experiment to other cities as another alternative to help students trapped in schools that fall short of standards year after year.

More than 1,700 schools around the country have failed to meet state standards for five or six years in a row. And many of these schools are in districts where public school choice isn't a real option. We're proposing a new $100 million Opportunity Scholarship Fund to help thousands of low-income students in these schools attend the private school of their choice or receive intensive one-on-one tutoring after school or during the summer.

We must look at new ways to help expand opportunity for parents and students in these communities—parents, like Diane Payne, who are fighting to send their children to high-quality schools. Diane, thanks for sharing your incredible story earlier today.

We've reached a point where we can give parents the information to make good, sound decisions for their children. I know that's what I want. And I know all the parents here today and around the country want the same.

As I said earlier, "If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got." The scary part is before No Child Left Behind, we had no idea what we were getting. We could just see the system wasn't working.

Now for the first time, we know exactly what we're getting from our schools. And more importantly, we understand what we must do to meet our historic goal of having every child reading and doing math at grade level by 2014.

We're all in this together. And it's the Dana Rone's and Catherine Hill's and Dianne Payne's of the world who are leading the charge from the ground up. I need you all to stay strong and continue fighting for parents and students in your communities and across the country. We've set out to do something that's never been done before. But I know it's possible with your help. Together, we'll rise to the challenge.

Thank you.

For more information on school choice and charter schools, please visit: http://www.ed.gov/news/opeds/factsheets/index.html#choice

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