pd08fe99 The President's Radio Address...

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Monday, February 8, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 5
Pages 157-210
 
Week Ending Friday, February 5, 1999
 
Remarks to the Community at Jackson Mann Elementary School in Allston, 
Massachusetts

February 2, 1999

    Thank you so much. First, I would like to thank all those who have 
joined us today. Governor, thank you for your remarks and your 
commitment. To Senator Kennedy and Senator Kerry, to Congressman Moakley 
and Congressman McGovern, and the other members of the Massachusetts 
delegation, I couldn't ask for stronger supporters and leaders for the 
cause of education.
    Mayor, thank you for setting an example which I hope will be 
followed by every mayor in the country in terms of your commitment to 
education. I want to congratulate Boston on stealing your 
superintendent, Tom Payzant, from the Department of Education and my 
administration. [Laughter] I forgive you for that. [Laughter] You have 
given a lot more to me than you have taken, and it is a gift to the 
children of this city.
    I'd like to thank Dr. Joanne Collins Russell and Gail Zimmerman and 
the faculty and the students, the chorus here at Jackson Mann, all of 
you, for making us feel so at home. Thank you so much. I want to thank 
the legislators and the local officials, the others who are here.
    I'm glad to be here. I heard a lot about this school. Tom Menino 
told me the last time he was here that you gave him pasta. [Laughter] So 
I didn't eat lunch at the last event--[laughter]--just waiting. That's 
not true, but it's a good story. He liked the pasta. [Laughter] It is 
true that he got pasta; it's not true I didn't eat lunch. [Laughter]
    But I also want to say to all of you, I was terribly impressed by 
what everyone said but most impressed by what your principal and what 
your teacher said, because it convinced me that this is a school which 
is going to be able to do right by the children of 21st century America. 
And every now and then, while I'm going through this talk and tell you 
what I'm going to propose to Congress, just look up there--there they 
are; that's America's future. That looks pretty good to me, but it is 
very different than our past.
    When I spoke at the State of the Union last month--to tell the 
American people that the state of our Union is strong, that our economy 
is perhaps the strongest it has ever been--I asked the American people 
to reflect upon what our obligations are in the midst of this economic 
success, with the social successes we've had, the welfare rolls cut 
almost in half, the lowest crime rate in a generation. What are we going 
to do with this?
    And I asked the American people to join together to meet the great 
challenges of a new century--things like the aging of America, helping 
families balance work and child rearing, helping communities and States 
and our entire country balance the need to grow the economy with the 
need to preserve the quality of life and the quality of our 
environment--big challenges.
    There is no challenge larger than giving every child in this country 
a world-class education, for every child will be not only a citizen of 
the United States but a citizen of the world. If you look at these 
children up here, you won't be surprised to know that all over America 
we not only have the largest group of schoolchildren in history, it is 
the most racially, ethnically, religiously, culturally diverse group in 
history.
    Now, as the world grows smaller and our contacts with people all 
over the world on every continent become more frequent and more 
profound, there is no country in the world better positioned to preserve 
liberty and prosperity and to be a beacon of hope than the United 
States. Because as we look more like the world, we will have more 
advantages to have a positive influence in the world--if, but only if, 
we prove that we really can build a successful multiracial, multiethnic, 
multicultural democracy where we say we cherish, we enjoy, we celebrate 
our diversity, but what we have in common is more important.
    And the challenge of this and every school is to make sure that all 
of our children understand and are proud of what is different

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about them but also understand and are proud of what they have in 
common. And understand that all children can learn and all children must 
learn, and that it will be more important to their generation than to 
any previous generation of Americans.
    The results you're getting here on your test scores, and just the 
feeling that one gets here in listening to what your principal and your 
teacher said, make me know that you are on the right track. I was so 
impressed with Ms. Zimmerman, when she got through, I said, ``You did a 
good job. You ought to run for public office.'' [Laughter] And she said, 
``Well, I might.'' [Laughter] I hope she'll teach a few more classes of 
kids with that kind of skill and understanding, first.
    There are lots of schools--over the last 20 years, Secretary Riley 
and I used to be Governors together, and I've spent a lot of time in 
public schools over the last 20 years--a lot of time, a lot of time as 
President. And this is actually unusual for me, just to come to the 
meeting like this. Normally when I come to a school, I also visit a 
class and talk to the teachers and talk to the students and listen and 
observe.
    And one of the things that I want the American people who aren't 
here to know and understand is that every single problem in American 
education has been solved by someone somewhere. And that many of these 
problems have been solved in schools where, if you didn't know anything 
about education, you could hardly believe it. Sometimes they're in the 
toughest neighborhoods; sometimes they have the most limited financial 
base. But with good principals, good teachers, a good culture in the 
school, high values, high standards, it is astonishing what I have seen 
in places where you wouldn't believe it.
    The great trick and difficulty in American education is, and the 
thing that we have not solved, we have not yet figured out how we can 
accelerate the pace by which all schools do what works in some schools. 
And I think every teacher here, everyone who has ever been across the 
country or across the State or maybe even across the city and had 
experience from school to school would say that that is sort of the 
nagging challenge.
    Part of it, of course, is that all schools are different, all kids 
are different, all classes are different, all circumstances are 
different. Part of it is that there are internal resistances to doing 
what the mayor is now trying to do citywide and the Governor is now 
trying to do statewide.
    That's why this year, our continuing effort to promote educational 
excellence will be of special importance, because this year we're going 
to try to do something the National Government has never done before. 
Every 5 years, we have a great debate in Congress on how we should spend 
the Federal contribution to our public schools. What are the terms under 
which the States and the school districts get this money. It is called a 
reauthorization act, and we're going to have that debate this year.
    This year, I am going to ask the Congress, for the first time, to 
invest more money than ever before in our schools but to invest only in 
what the schools and the teachers and the parents have told us works and 
to stop investing in what doesn't work. [Applause] Now, I don't think we 
should subsidize inadequate performance; I think we should reward 
results. And sure enough, more people will follow the lead of schools 
like this one, if it happens.
    Now, this may seem self-evident. You all clapped. Believe me, this 
will be very controversial. After all, there are some people in Congress 
who don't believe we have any business investing in more--more in public 
education, because it is a State constitutional function, and in every 
State most of the money is raised either at the local level or at the 
State level, but only nationwide about 7 percent of the money comes from 
the national level. But it's a lot of money. I mean, $15 billion--$15 
billion is not chump change. It's real money, and it can make a real 
difference.
    There's more than ever before. Last year we got bipartisan agreement 
in Congress, after a big debate, to make a big downpayment on 100,000 
more teachers in the early grades to help you deal with the problem of 
more teachers retiring as more kids come in. And the plain evidence is 
that smaller classes in the early grades make a special difference.

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    We did not pass last year--I hope we will this year--my proposal to 
build or modernize 5,000 schools, through the use of the tax credit. 
Now, we actually have--Boston is the first city with all the schools 
hooked up to the Internet, you heard the mayor say that. I hate to tell 
you this: We have some cities where the school buildings are in such bad 
shape they are not capable of being hooked up to the Internet. And I 
have been in school districts from Virginia to Florida to California 
where there are so many kids that the outside is littered with house 
trailers where they're going to school.
    So this is a big challenge. There are some who don't think we should 
be doing that. They think that's somebody else's job. But there's an 
even deeper debate you will see this year about more than money. Some 
people argue that even though we spend $15 billion a year on public 
education, the National Government has no business whatever holding the 
system accountable for results. They say, if we say we're going to hold 
districts accountable for results, that we're trying to micromanage the 
schools.
    Nothing could be further from the truth. If I have learned one 
single, solitary thing in 20 years of going into schools, it is that if 
you have a good principal and a good attitude among the faculty and a 
decent relationship with the parents, you're going to have a successful 
school. You're doing the right things. I've learned that.
    So you will not find anybody who is more reluctant to micromanage 
the schools than me. But keep in mind what I said--and you ask the 
teachers when I'm gone if this is not true--every problem in American 
education has been solved by somebody somewhere. The problem is we are 
not very good at spreading what works to all the rest of the schools in 
a timely and efficient manner.
    Therefore, what I propose to do is to write into the law what 
teachers and other educators have said to me are the critical elements 
of dealing with the challenges of this generation of young people, and 
the dramatic income and other differences we see from school district to 
school district, and say: If you want the money, you should do this--not 
should--you must do this.
    This will be very controversial. But I'm telling you, I have been 
frustrated for 20 years in trying it the other way. We had some school 
districts in my State that had done things that achieved national 
acclaim, and I put in a bill--and I passed it--to create a pot of money 
to pay the expenses of educators from other school districts in my State 
to go to these school districts to see what was going on, and a majority 
of them wouldn't do it when I offered to pay their way. We should have--
it wasn't because they weren't dedicated. It was just sort of, ``Oh, 
well, you know, we do it our way. They do it their way.''
    And I believe that this is a very, very important debate. And I came 
here because I approve of what you're doing in this school, and I'm 
proud of it. I came here because I'm proud of what the mayor is doing. 
I'm proud here because of Massachusetts' historic commitment to 
excellence in education. I came here because your congressional 
delegation is as devoted to excellence in education as any in the land. 
That's why I'm here--to say that every place should be like this, and 
that we can help. And I hope you will support that.
    Can you imagine any company spending $15 billion and saying, ``Here, 
take the money. We don't care what the results are. And come back next 
year, and I'll write you another check.'' [Laughter] I don't think any 
child in America should be passed from grade to grade without knowing 
the material. I don't think we're doing children a favor. I don't think 
any child should be trapped in a failing school without a strategy to 
turn the school around or give the kid a way out. And I believe these 
should be national priorities, not to tell people how to do this but to 
say that you must have a strategy to do it, that you implement, that 
produces results. You decide how to do it.
    From now on, I think we should say to States and to school 
districts, ``Identify your worst-performing, least-improving schools, 
turn them around, or shut them down.'' There's $200 million in my budget 
to help school districts do that--$200 million. And we can do this. I'll 
talk more about it in a minute; I'll give you some evidence of that.

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    If we fail to do it, how many kids are we going to lose to low 
expectations? And every one of them can learn. You know it, and I know 
it. If we succeed, our best years lie ahead. Their years will be 
America's best years.
     I'll tell you, I've listened to this debate for two decades now, 
and half the time, when I hear people say we can't do something, what 
they're really saying is, ``Those kids are different from my kids, and I 
don't really believe they can learn.'' Well, that is not true. All of 
our children can learn, and I intend to see that they do.
    We're working to help every city follow Boston's lead and be hooked 
up to the Internet by early in the next century. We're working to expand 
Head Start. We're working to bring more tutors to elementary schools to 
help work with the teachers to help make sure our kids can read. And 
it's very important, when their first language is not English, to give 
more and more help in the schools. We're working to send college 
students as mentors into middle schools and high schools, where hardly 
any kids go to college, and convince all kids they can go to college.
    If you look at the scholarships, the loans, the Pell grants, the tax 
cuts, the work-study programs that this Congress has approved in the 
last 4 years, there's no excuse for anybody not going to college because 
of the money. You can afford to go now. We have put the money out there. 
And every 11- and 12- and 13-year-old kid in America needs to know this. 
They need to know that they can make their own future.
    I know that some of our America Reads tutors are working at Jackson 
Mann and several AmeriCorps City Year members are working here too, and 
I want to thank them. Boston University AmeriCorps, thank you. And I 
want to get back to the point here. Our schools are doing better all 
over the country. Almost all the scores are up. The math scores are up. 
The SAT scores are up. But we have two big challenges, and I want you to 
focus on them.
    Number one, reading scores have hardly budged. Now, that should not 
surprise you because our school population every year has a higher and 
higher percentage of immigrant children whose first language is not 
English. So it's harder just to stay in place, but it's not good enough, 
because these children are still going to have to go out into a world 
where they'll either be able to read and learn and think and reason in 
this country's main language, or they won't. So we have to do better.
    Something that bothers me even more is that these international 
comparative scores in math and science--this is fascinating--American 
children, a representative group by race, by income, and by reason rank 
at the top of the world in the international math and science scores in 
the fourth grade. You know, they're always first or second or third, 
last couple of years. They drop to the middle by the time they're in the 
eighth grade. By the time they're in the 12th grade, they rank near the 
bottom.
    Now, you can't say that the kids can't learn, otherwise, they never 
would have been at the top, right? So that means that we have to do some 
things in our system to make sure that their fast start speeds up, not 
slows down. There could be no more compelling evidence that our children 
can learn.
    So in this year's budget--I'll say again--I not only want to finish 
hiring the 100,000 teachers, take another big step there, and fix the 
5,000 schools and keep hooking up to the Internet, and also give you 
something to find on the Internet--we're going to set up a digital 
library with hundreds of thousands of books that schools can access--so 
every school library in America, literally, within a few years, every 
school library in America can have 400,000 books if the digital library 
works.
    We also want to pass this bill that says, ``Okay, here's the Federal 
money. But here's what you have to do if you want to get it. First of 
all, you have to identify the worst-performing, least-improving schools 
and take responsibility for turning them around,'' just like the mayor 
is and the school people are here in Boston--Mr. Payzant is working on 
that. That's what you've got to do. Why is that? Because we've got to 
insist that the schools, no matter how difficult their circumstances, 
offer world-class education.
    Now, under our plan, States and school districts would audit failing 
schools for educational weaknesses, find resources that

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would help, do what Ms. Zimmerman does on her own: Go out and help the 
mentor teachers; make sure that all the teachers have been given the 
best development possible; provide reading tutors if they're needed; 
provide other kinds of help to get more parents involved; do whatever is 
necessary.
    Then, if after 2 years the student achievement still doesn't 
improve, States and districts would have to take stronger action, 
including permitting students to attend other schools if they and their 
parents want to do so. Or reconstituting the school, making staff 
changes as appropriate. Or maybe even closing the school and reopening 
it, completely differently constructed.
    Now, this can work. Let me just give you two examples. Six years ago 
Houston listed 68 of its schools as low performers. Today, after much 

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