[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
[April 24, 2008]
[Pages 569-575]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at the White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based
Schools
April 24, 2008
Thank you all. Aysia, thanks for the
introduction. You did a fabulous job. I'm told that you're a very hard
worker who loves school, and it's clear you always wear a smile. She's a
member of her school's student advisory group, has performed in plays
ranging from Shakespeare to ``The Lion King,'' writes short stories, and
as you just heard her explain, she loves all language arts. Well, that's
good. Some people say I'm pretty artful with language as well.
[Laughter]
It is clear she has a promising future because of the education she
is receiving at Saint Ann's. Unfortunately, thousands of other children
like her are missing out on these opportunities because America's inner-
city faith-based schools are closing at an alarming rate. And so that's
why we've convened this summit, to discuss how we can extend lifelines
of learning to all America's children. And I want to thank you for
coming.
I take this summit seriously. Obviously, you do as well. My
administration looks forward to working with you. This is a national
objective, to make sure every child gets a good education. And I really
appreciate you coming.
I want to thank my friend and the Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, for joining with us today. I
thank the Acting Secretary of HUD, Roy Bernardi.
Archbishop Wuerl, thank you very much,
sir, for being here. We were just talking about what a glorious week it
was to welcome His Holiness to America. It was an extraordinary moment
for all who were directly involved and, I think, an extraordinary moment
for all of America.
I got to know Archbishop Wuerl in
Pittsburgh. I hope I conveyed to him my sense that providing a sound
education for every child is one of the really important challenges for
America. I happen to believe it is one of the greatest civil rights
challenges. I am fully aware that in inner-city America, some children
are getting a good education, but a lot are consigned to inadequate
schools.
And I believe helping these children should be a priority of a
nation. It's certainly a priority to me. I married a teacher who has worked in inner-city
schools; I helped raise one as well. And helping
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inner-city children receive the education they deserve is so important
as we head into the 21st century, to make sure every child has got the
skills necessary to succeed. That's what a hopeful country is all about.
Over the past 7 years, we have worked to strengthen the public
school system. In other words, we haven't given up on public schools.
Quite the contrary, we've tried to help them succeed by passing the No
Child Left Behind Act. In some circles, it's controversial. I don't
think it should be controversial, however, to demand high standards for
every child. I don't think it should be controversial to insist upon
accountability to see if those children are meeting those standards. And
I don't think it should be viewed as controversial to say to a public
school, if children are falling behind, here's supplemental services to
help that individual child catch up.
As a result of accountability measures, I can now say that eighth
graders set a record high for math scores. In other words, in order to
be able to say that, you have to measure in the first place. When I was
Governor of Texas, I didn't like a system where we just simply guessed--
you know, ``Do you think the child is learning?'' ``I don't know. Maybe,
maybe not.'' [Laughter] That's unacceptable, particularly when a child's
life is at stake.
We've learned that scores for minority and poor students are
reaching alltime highs in a number of areas, and that's great. As a
matter of fact, there's an achievement gap in America that is
unacceptable. The good news is, it's beginning to narrow. The problem
is, is that while the No Child Left Behind Act is helping to turn around
many struggling schools, there are still children trapped in schools
that will not teach and will not change.
Today, nearly one-half of children in America's major urban school
districts do not graduate on time; one-half of our children in major
urban school districts do not get out of school on time. In Detroit, one
student in four makes it out of the public school system with a diploma.
When schools like these fail our inner-city children, it is unfair, it's
unacceptable, and it is unsustainable for our country.
And so there are a variety of solutions. One is to work hard to
improve the public school system. But also another solution is to
recognize that there is a bright future for a lot of children found in
faith-based schools.
The faith-based school tradition is not a 21st-century phenomenon. A
Quaker school opened in Philadelphia in 1689. A Jewish day school opened
in New York more than 40 years before the American Revolution. And
during the 19th century, Catholic schools in our biggest cities welcomed
children of poor European immigrants. Can you imagine what it would--
what it's like to be an immigrant coming to America, can't hardly speak
the language, and find great solace in two institutions: one, church;
and two, schools? And generations of Americans have been lifted up.
Generations of the newly arrived have been able to have hopeful futures
because of our faith-based schools. It's been a--it's a fact. It's a
part of our history. Frankly, it's a glorious part of our history.
Today, our Nation's poorest--in our poorest communities, religious
schools continue to provide important services. And as they carry out
their historic mission of training children in faith, these schools
increasingly serve children, you know, that don't share their religious
tradition. That's important for people to know, that there's a lot of
students who, for example, may not be Catholic who go to the schools and
get a great education. That's what we ought to be focused on, how to get
people a great education.
In neighborhoods where some people say children simply can't learn,
the faith-based schools are proving the naysayers wrong. These schools
are--provide a good, solid academic foundation for children. They also
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help children understand the importance of discipline and character.
Yet for all their successes, America's inner-city faith-based
schools are facing a crisis. And I use the word crisis for this reason:
Between 2000 and 2006, nearly 1,200 faith-based schools closed in
America's inner cities. It's affected nearly 400,000 students. They're
places of learning where people are getting a good education, and
they're beginning to close, to the extent that 1,200 of them have
closed. The impact of school closings extends far beyond the children
that are having to leave these classrooms. The closings place an added
burden on inner-city public schools that are struggling. And these
school closings impoverish our country by really denying a future of
children a critical source of learning not only about how to read and
write, but about social justice.
We have an interest in the health of these institutions. One of the
reasons I've come is to highlight this problem and say to our country,
we have an interest in the health of these centers of excellence. It's
in the country's interest to get beyond the debate of public/private, to
recognize this is a critical national asset that provides a critical
part of our Nation's fabric in making sure we're a hopeful place.
And so I want to spend a little time talking about what can be done
to help preserve these schools and provide, more importantly, a hopeful
future. And that's what you're going to do after I leave as well.
First, ensuring that faith-based schools can continue to serve
inner-city children requires a commitment from the Federal Government.
Federal funds support faith-based organizations that serve Americans in
need. So we got beyond the social service debate by saying, you know,
it's okay to use taxpayers' money to provide help for those who hurt. My
whole theory of life was, we ought to be asking about results, not
necessarily process. When you focus on process, you can find all sorts
of reasons not to move forward. If you, say, focus on results, it then
provides an outlet for other options than state-sponsored programs,
which is okay.
I mean, what I'm telling you is, is that we're using taxpayers'
money to empower faith-based organizations to help meet critical needs
throughout the country, critical needs such as helping a child whose
parents may be in prison understand there's hope; a critical need is
helping a prisoner recently released realize there's a hopeful tomorrow;
a critical need is to help somebody whip drugs and alcohol so they can
live a hopeful life. And we do that in the social services.
We also provide Federal funds--funding support for institutions of
higher learning. We're using taxpayers' money to enable somebody to go
to a private university, a religious university. It's a long tradition
of the United States of America.
So my attitude is, if we're doing this, if this is a precedent, why
don't we use the same philosophy to provide Federal funds to help inner-
city families find greater choices in educating their children.
There is a precedent for this called the DC choice initiative act.
And we've got some advocates here for the DC Choice Incentive Act--I
know; I've worked with them--and I'm surprised they're not yelling
again. [Laughter] The law created Washington's opportunity scholarship
program, which has helped more than 2,600 of the poorest children in our
Nation's Capital find new hope at a faith-based or other nonpublic
school. In other words, one way to address the closings of schools is to
empower parents to be able to send their children to those schools
before they close.
And this is a successful program, I think it's safe to say. One way
to judge whether it's successful is to look at the demand for the
scholarship relative to the supplies of the scholarship. And there's a
lot of people who want their children to be able to take advantage of
this program. As a matter of fact, demand clearly outstrips supply,
which
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says to me we ought to expand the program and not kill the program. I
mean, when you have a--[applause].
So we'll continue to work with Congress to not only reauthorize the
program as it exists, but hopefully, expand it so that parents will be
able to--[applause].
I also proposed an idea that I really hope Congress takes seriously,
and that is Pell Grants for Kids. We--this would be a $300 million
initiative that would help as many as 75,000 low-income children that
are now enrolled in troubled public schools to be able to go to a school
of the parents' choice. See, one of the--what's very important to make
sure that an accountability system works is there's actual consequences
and outlets.
And one of the outlets would be, if you're in a public school that
won't teach and won't change, and you're--qualify--here's a scholarship
for you to be able to have an additional opportunity. And to me, this is
a good way to help strengthen the schools that I was talking about that
are losing. I mean, one way to make sure you don't lose schools is you
have people that are able to afford the education sustain the cashflow
of these valuable American assets.
Pell grants--I want to remind our citizens, Pell grants have helped
low-income young adults pursue the dream of a college education. And it
is time to apply the same spirit to liberate poor children trapped in
public schools that aren't meeting expectations.
State and local governments can help. Today, more than 30 State
constitutions include so-called Blaine amendments, which prohibit public
support of religious schools. These amendments have their roots in 19th-
century, anti-Catholic bigotry, and today, the legacy of discrimination
continues to harm low-income students of many faiths and many
backgrounds. And so State lawmakers, if they're concerned about quality
education for children and if they're concerned about these schools
closing, they ought to remove the Blaine amendments; they ought to move
this part of history.
There are other things State and local governments can do. I would
call people's attention to the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax
Credit--P-E-I-T-C--PEITC--[laughter]--which allows businesses to meet
State tax obligations by supporting pre-K through 12 scholarships for
low-income students. It's an innovative way to use the Tax Code to meet
a national--in this case, State--objective. The scholarships then allow
children to attend the school of their choice, including religious
schools. Since 2001, these tax credits have yielded more than $300
million to help Pennsylvania families. It's an innovative use of the Tax
Code to meet social objectives. All 12 high schools in the diocese--in
Pittsburgh, Bishop--have seen increased
enrollment each year the program has been in place. That's positive.
And so I would call upon State leaders to listen to what comes out
of this conference and to think of innovative ways to advance education
for all children. Faith-based schools can continue to serve inner-city
children requires a--to see that that happens requires a commitment from
the business community. It's in corporate America's interest that our
children get a good education, starting in pre-K through 12th grade.
In Chicago, a group of Jesuit priests found an innovative way to
finance children's education called Cristo Rey, and they convinced
Chicago's businesses to become involved. It's interesting that the
Jesuits took the initiative. I would hope that corporate America would
also take initiative. [Laughter] But 4 days of the week, the children go
to class, and then on the fifth, they report for work at some of
Chicago's most prestigious firms.
The businesses get energetic, reliable workers for high-turnover
jobs. The students get a top-notch education plus real work experience.
They feel a sense of pride when they leave some of the city's most
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dangerous neighborhoods for the city's tallest skyscrapers. It's a
program that is working, and many of the students take that same sense
of pride and accomplishment to higher education.
It's interesting to note that Cristo Rey is now involved in 19
cities. In other words, the good ideas can take hold. The job of this
conference is to provide a kind of go-by for people who share a sense of
concern about our Nation's future. And hopefully, from this summit, good
ideas will be spawning other good ideas--at the Federal level, the State
and local level, at the corporate level, and then, of course, at the
citizen level.
Citizens are--you know, we are a compassionate nation. What I see is
America at its very best, which is these millions of acts of kindness
and generosity that take place, and it doesn't require a government law.
Sometimes it takes a little higher authority than government to inspire
people to acts of kindness and mercy. But it happens all the time in
America, it truly does. About one-third of Americans who volunteer do so
through religious organizations. Many of them happen to be faith-based
schools, by the way. When you hear about an America that volunteers,
many of the volunteers are at faith-based schools.
I was struck by a interesting story that came out of Memphis,
Tennessee. Ten years ago, private donors gave approximately $15 million
to the church in Memphis to help revive Catholic schools in the city's
poorest neighborhoods. Assets exists; they're worried about them going
away. So rather than just watch schools close, somebody--individuals did
something about it by putting up $15 million. With the seed money, the
diocese launched the Jubilee Schools initiative and reopened Catholic
schools that had been shuttered actually, in some cases, for decades.
Today, 10 Jubilee schools serve more than 1,400 students. Eighty-one
percent of these children are not Catholic; nearly 96 percent live at or
below poverty level.
With the help from Jubilee scholarship donors, tuition becomes
whatever the family can afford. And the schools happen to be working as
well, which is really important. The program--and the reason I can tell
you is because test scores are up; like, they're not afraid to measure.
You've got to be a little worried in our society when somebody says, ``I
don't think I want to measure.'' That's like saying, ``I don't want to
be held to account.'' The problem with that line of reasoning when it--
is that when you're dealing with our children, it's unacceptable. Of
course, you should be held to account. We ought to praise those who
achieve excellence and call upon those who don't to change so they can
achieve excellence.
And so this school system is willing to measure, and it has been a
great joy for the people of Memphis to watch excellence spread. And I
want to thank those who have put forth the money and call on all
citizens to find ways they can contribute with their hearts to help
educational entrepreneurs succeed--is really what we're talking about,
isn't it? Kind of innovation--the willing to challenge the status quo if
it's not working. I call it educational entrepreneurship, so I'd
consider yourself entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs.
Faith-based schools can continue to serve inner-city children, and
sometimes they can get a good boost from higher education. It seems like
to me it's--when I was Governor of Texas, I tried to get our higher
education institutions to understand that rather than becoming a source
of remediation, they ought to be a source of added value. And one way to
do so is to help these schools early on to make sure that children don't
slip behind in the basics.
I was impressed by Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education,
known as ACE, which prepares college graduates to work as teachers in
underserved Catholic schools. It's an interesting way to participate in
making sure the Catholic schools and the faith-based schools stay
strong, and
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that is to educate teachers, actually go in the classrooms, and make
sure that there's adequate instruction available. The people at Notre
Dame commit to teach for 2 years as they earn their master's degree in
education. And turns out that when you get a taste for being a teacher,
that you tend to stay. And so today, there are about 650 ACE teachers
and graduates who work at Catholic schools across the country.
And there's a--I like the idea of these higher education
institutions saying, okay, here's what I can contribute to making sure
that elementary school and junior high school and high school education
has high standards and excellence. And one way to do it is to support
our faith-based schools all across the country.
And so that's what I've come to talk to you about. Here are some
ways--I mean, these are levels of society that ought to all be involved,
and hopefully, out of this meeting, that there's concrete action. We
didn't ask you to come to Washington just to opine; we came and asked
you to Washington to set good ideas out there for others to go by,
because there's a lot of people in our country who share the same
concern you share. People understand what we're talking about here. This
is pretty practical stuff. This isn't--these are just down-to-earth
ideas on how to solve some of our Nation's critical problems.
And so I'm--let me end with a story here about Yadira
Vieyra. Yadira's here. She goes to Georgetown
University, and she said--I heard--I was asking if Yadira was going to
be here so I could ask her to stand here in a minute, and a fellow told
me she's a little worried about missing class. So whoever Yadira's
teacher is, please blame it on me, not her. [Laughter]
She is a--she was born in Mexico--
Mexicana. And they moved to Chicago, probably to try to realize a better
life--I'm confident, to try to realize a better life. Mom and dad had a
dream to give their family hope. There's no more hopeful place in the
world, by the way, than the United States of America. We shouldn't be
surprised when people come to America for a hopeful life. And that's
what America has been and should be.
And then we shouldn't be surprised when the parents hope that their
children get a great education, because there's nothing more hopeful for
a parent than to know their child is receiving a good education. Well,
that's what Yadira's folks wanted for her. And
so when the time came--time for her to go to high school came--they
wanted something better than a low-performing high school. You know, one
of the interesting things about the accountability system--a lot of
people think that their child goes to the finest school ever, until the
results get posted. [Laughter]
And it's--the whole purpose, by the way, is not to embarrass
anybody; it's not to scold anybody. The whole purpose is to achieve
excellence for every person. And so Yadira's
parents, I'm sure, took a look at the school system and said, there's a
better way. And so guess what? She went to Cristo Rey, the program I
just described to you. And she was challenged by the school's rigorous
academics.
If you set low standards, guess what you're going to get--low
results. If you believe in every child's worth and every child can
learn, it's important to set high standards and challenge the children.
And that's what happened in the school she
went to. She was inspired by great teachers. She said she was motivated
by the school's amazing job program. And she is now at Georgetown
University, one of the great schools--universities in America. And guess
what she wants to do when she leaves Georgetown? She wants to enroll in
Notre Dame's ACE program. Yadira, thanks for coming.
You either just got an A--[laughter]--or an F. [Laughter] Either
case, we're glad you're here--[laughter]--and I love your example. And
the reason why it's important to have examples--so that we get beyond
the rhetoric and realize that we're dealing
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with the human potential. Someday, no telling what Yadira's going to be in life, but one thing is for certain:
It's going to be a productive citizen, and America will be better for
it. And so we're glad you're here. Thank you for your spirit. Tell your
parents thank you.
And so let me close with what happened at Nationals stadium with His
Holy Father. He--when he celebrated Mass
there, one of the objects he blessed at the end of the Mass was the new
cornerstone of the Pope John Paul the Great High School in Arlington,
Virginia. Isn't that interesting? I mean, I'm sure there was a lot of
demands on His Holy Father, but he took time to bless the cornerstone of
a school.
And my hope is, is that we're laying cornerstones for new schools
here or revived schools; that we take the spirit of the Holy Father and extend it throughout the country and work
for excellence for every child, to set high standards, and when we find
centers of excellence, not let them go away, but to think of policy that
will enable them to not only exist, not only survive, but to thrive.
It's in our Nation's interests. It's an important summit for America.
I thank you for bringing your talents, your energies, and your
efforts. I thank you for caring deeply about our young. And I thank you
for being a part of what I believe is a necessary strategy to make sure
America continues to be a hopeful place for all.
God bless you. Thank you all.
Note: The President spoke at 10:23 a.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building
and International Trade Center. In his remarks, he referred to Aysia
Mayo-Gray, student, St. Ann's Academy, Washington, DC; Archbishop Donald
W. Wuerl of Washington, DC; and Pope Benedict XVI.