[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[February 20, 1999]
[Pages 223-224]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
The President's Radio Address
February 20, 1999
Good morning. This weekend, Governors from all over our country are
here in Washington to talk about the long-term challenges facing our
Nation as we prepare to enter the 21st century. Of those challenges,
none is more important than educating our children--all our children--to
world-class standards. Today I want to talk about how we must work
together at every level of government and in every community to make
sure our Nation's public schools are the best in the world.
For 6 years now, improving education has been one of our highest
priorities. Even as we have held fast to fiscal discipline, replacing an
age of crippling budget deficits with a new era of budget surpluses, we
have nearly doubled our investment in education and training.
The balanced budget I sent to Washington this month strengthens that
commitment to our children's education with even more resources to help
States improve accountability, to build or modernize 6,000 schools,* to
reduce class size in the early grades, to start more after-school
programs, to connect every classroom and library to the Internet, and to
finish the job of hiring 100,000 new highly trained teachers.
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* White House correction.
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This is an education agenda for the 21st century. But with more
children entering school than ever before and enrollments continuing to
rise, we know we must draw on every resource we possess to strengthen
and improve our public schools.
As both a former Governor and a parent, I know the greatest
innovations in education do not start in Washington. They start in local
schools and school districts, in community councils and parent-teacher
groups. They start in States like North Carolina, where Governor
Hunt has led the way to improve teacher
quality, with performance assessment for new teachers and incentives for
veteran teachers to become even more proficient and to become board-
certified master teachers.
They start in Michigan, where Governor Engler is supporting greater accountability in
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schools by requiring school districts to send parent report cards on how
well their schools are doing. They start in Delaware, where Governor
Carper putting an end to social promotion
by insisting that students pass State tests before they move to next
grades. They start in Pennsylvania, where Governor Ridge is improving school safety with effective discipline
codes. They're starting in States like California, where Governor
Davis has called on the State legislature to turn
around failing schools with a new accountability plan.
As I have said many times, every problem in education in America has
been solved somewhere, by somebody, in America. The trick is helping
more communities to put those proven solutions to work in their own
public schools. I believe the National Government has an obligation to
help them do that.
That's why, in my State of the Union Address, I proposed an
ambitious new agenda to invest more of our resources in what we know is
working and to stop investing in what doesn't. My plan will help every
school district to take five steps that are already working in schools
around the country, steps advocated by teachers and principals and
parents and students themselves: ending social promotion, but investing
more money to help students with summer school and after-school
programs, so we don't blame students when the system fails them;
adopting and enforcing reasonable discipline codes; giving parents
report cards on their children's schools and giving parents and children
more choice of schools, with charter schools and more public school
choice; turning around or shutting down the worst performing public
schools; and ensuring that all new teachers are trained in the subject
they'll be teaching.
Now, these steps are all based on proven experience. They're common
sense. We have to make them common practice in every school district in
America.
All across our Nation, we're seeing a grassroots revolution in
education, a revolution in accountability and rising expectations. This
year we have a rare opportunity to use our new prosperity to help this
revolution spread to every single school district, every classroom,
every child.
Now, some in Congress believe the National Government has no
business helping communities to improve their schools in this way. But I
think strengthening education is a national priority. So I urge Congress
to help reduce class size, to modernize our school buildings, to improve
teacher quality, to make accountability for results--ending social
promotion, reasonable discipline codes, all these other things that I
have advocated--make these things the law of the land. If we do this, we
can transform our public schools; we can lift our children up; we can
give them the education they need to make the most of their lives in an
exciting new century.
Thanks for listening.
Note: The address was recorded at 7:30 p.m. on February 19 in the
Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February
20. In his remarks, the President referred to Governors James B. Hunt,
Jr., of North Carolina; John Engler of Michigan; Thomas R. Carper of
Delaware; Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania; and Gray Davis of California. The
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on
February 19 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.