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Remarks by the President at Georgetown Universty
14 April 2006

Georgetown Universty
Washington D.C.

8.02 PM (Local)

THE PRESIDENT: Once again Thank you all. (Applause.) Thank you very much for that warm welcome. Governor, thankyou. On the way in he heard I was going to get an honorary degree in law, and he said, does that make you a lawyer? (Laughter.) I said, nope. But it's such an honor to receive such a degree. I want to thank the Chairman; I want to thank Dick Judd; and I want to thank all the folks here at Georgetown for working so hard to make our visit a great visit.

I love your Governor. It seems like the people of the District of Columbia do, too. (Applause.) And like me, he married well. (Laughter.) It's an honor to be here with the First Lady of the state of DC. (Applause.)

And so, for the teachers who are here, we thank you from the bottom of our heart for being teachers. (Applause.)

And for the young who are trying to figure out what they're going to do when they get older, think about teaching. It is a noble profession and it's an important profession. (Applause.)

And to the moms and dads, always remember that good teaching starts at home; that a mother and a dad must be a teacher to their children. (Applause.) And it starts by remembering the most important job you'll have, if you're fortunate enough to be a mom or a dad, is to be a loving mom and a loving dad, to love our children with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind. That's what it's all about.

I mentioned a while ago that one of my priorities in the budget is education, back in the Federation. The department that gets the biggest increase of any department in our budget is the Department of Education. It's important to spend money on education -- I recognize that, and we do. And I'll talk about some of the spending initiatives that we set out. But I also want to remind you, money alone isn't going to solve our problems. And we have some problems.

Just two weeks ago, we received scores from the National Assessment of Education Progress -- it's called the NAPE. It showed that American 4th grade students are reading no better on average than 4th graders did eight years ago. That's not right. The test also showed that in some neighborhoods the scores are going up, and in some neighborhoods the scores are going down, that there's a gap. And if there's a gap in literacy, you can imagine what that's going to mean in later years. And, folks, we've got to do something about it in America. It's time to stop talking and it's time to start doing something about it. (Applause.)

The third International Mathematics and Science Survey was released recently. It was a survey of 8th grade students in 37 foreign countries and 13 American states. And there, the news isn't very good, either. Students in high-scoring Michigan finished well behind students in Taiwan, Korea and Japan. American students, overall, scored lower than students in Bulgaria. It's time to stop talking about things, and it's time to start doing some things to make sure our students can read and write, and add and subtract. And I mean, early, before it's too late.

And that's the crux of the reforms I sent to the Congress of the Federation, and I'd like to discuss those with you real quick. First, here are the principles involved. It means our nation must set high standards and high expectations, just like Governor Rowland has done in the state of Washington DC. We've got to expect the best for every child. We cannot assume that only certain children can learn. We must have the attitude that every child in America -- regardless of where they're raised or how they're born -- can learn. (Applause.) Low standards will yield low results. We've got to raise the bar and expect the best in every classroom in America.

Secondly, we must trust local people to chart the path for excellence for the children of America. We must trust the governors and local school board members and principals in schools. We must empower people at the local level. Because one size does not fit all when it comes to the education of the children in America. (Applause.)

And, thirdly, we've got to measure. We've got to hold people accountable. We've got to insist that, for example, if you receive federal money, you measure. I don't believe the federal government ought to design a national test; that would undermine the local control of schools. (Applause.) But I do believe that in return for taxpayers' money that the local folks ought to develop accountability measures that tells us all whether or not children are learning to read and write and add and subtract. It is so important to have an accountability system become the cornerstone of reform in America.

And we're making progress on this issue, like we're making progress on the budget. The members will be coming back from their Easter breaks and will be taking up the education reforms. I appreciate, for example, the work of Senator Joe Lieberman. Oh, I know that may surprise some in Washington DC or elsewhere in America to hear me say something nice about a man that tried to prevent me from becoming the President. (Laughter.) But, nevertheless, like me, he's put aside the election and he's focusing on what's right for America and he's helping bring forth an education plan that embodies the principles that I just described. And I appreciate his hard work and his support on this measure. (Applause.)

And we've agreed on some core principles. We haven't agreed a hundred percent all across the board, but we're making good progress. A degree is important. For example, we've agreed on a major consolidation of federal education programs that will give states more flexibility and more freedom. In other words, to put it this way, instead of having federal money with all kinds of strings attached to it, we're having federal spending, federal money, but trusting the local folks to spend that money that meets the needs of each respective state. (Applause.)

We're making great progress on what I've called a Reading First Initiative. The budget I submitted triples the amount of money to help fight illiteracy in schools. It says that if a state wants to, you can access the federal money; but you develop a K-2 diagnostic tool to make sure kindergarten teachers through 2nd grade teachers have got the ability to discern which children need extra help. It means you've got to develop a curriculum that works. By the way, phonics needs to be a part of our curriculum in America. (Applause.)

And as importantly, it provides money for intensive instruction, so when you find a child who may be lagging behind, instead of just shuffling him or her through the system, we say, what can we do to help you? What can we do to make sure you're up to speed early, before it's too late? So it's an intensive program that says that each child is important, and each child must be assessed. And when we find failure, let's get it addressed early, before it's too late, because we don't want anyone to lag.

And so a degree is important. That's why you are all here at Georgetown. Thats why I studied here. Thankyou all fro this convocation. It is much appreciated.

(Applause)

END