Sec. Paige - Mar. 23, 2001

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Hyatt Regency, Washington

(Note: Because Safer Child, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, with no political affiliation, we have omitted all political references from the excerpt below. Omitted portions are indicated by (>>>). Additionally, as noted on the U.S. Department of Education Web site, Secretary Paige might have deviated from the prepared text when he delivered the original speech. Permission to reprint this excerpt does not necessarily indicate U.S. Department of Education endorsement of Safer Child, Inc. or of the Safer Child, Inc. Web site.)

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Our public education system is not meeting the needs of our children. It’s been almost twenty years since my predecessor, Terrel Bell, created a commission to examine our public school system. That commission’s final report, "A Nation at Risk," highlighted just how complacent we had become towards mediocrity and failure in our schools.

Twenty years later – where are we? Nearly 70 percent of our inner-city fourth graders are unable to read at even a basic level.

Twenty years later, our high school seniors trail students in nearly every industrialized nation on international math tests.

Twenty years later, nearly one-third of our college freshmen arrive unprepared for their college level courses, and must take remedial courses instead.

Twenty years later, our biggest failure is the growing achievement gap that exists between disadvantaged and minority students and their peers. Older students who need the most help are not getting it, and young children trapped in poverty are not getting the education that would help them secure a strong future.

And this is twenty years after we started a period of so-called school reform.

Our education system is simply not preparing students for the modern workforce. When our high-tech industries need skillful hi-tech workers, where do they turn? To foreign workers. In 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service granted 115,000 H-1B visas, and last year, Congress voted to increase that visa cap to 195,000.

There is nothing wrong with the H-1B program, but there is something wrong when American schools fail to prepare American students for these valuable jobs. Frankly, it’s a betrayal of our children.

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We must focus our education system on the fundamentals of organizational effectiveness.

	Fundamentals like high standards
	Fundamentals like annual assessment for results
	Fundamentals like accountability for results
	Fundamentals like flexibility and local controls, and
	Fundamentals like expanded parental choice

These are fundamentals that work for businesses and individuals. And they are fundamentals that will work for our schools.

Setting high standards is the first step. When we expect more from our children, we will get more. Children know when they are being sold short. The President calls this "the soft bigotry of low expectations." We can’t help our children by asking less of them, but we can help them by expecting more.

Setting standards is important, but it does us no good if we aren’t making sure that our kids are meeting them. To ensure that children are meeting high standards, we must test them – every child, every year – and leave no child behind.

Some people are frightened of the word ‘test,’ but testing can be a powerful and effective tool for teachers. Tests that are aligned with standards, objectives, and curriculum are our best tool for identifying where students and schools are succeeding. Tests are also the best way for us to identify failing schools and failing students. When we can see them – and we cannot be afraid to see them – we can give them the resources they need to succeed.

We have a responsibility to make sure that schools get the resources they need. But schools in turn have a responsibility to make sure kids are learning. And when schools aren’t teaching children, they will be held accountable.

When investors create a business, they demand that it demonstrate results. When customers buy a product, they demand that it perform as advertised. Why should a school be any different? The taxpayers are the investors, and parents are the partners. They have every right to demand results.

When schools are failing to teach their students, taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth, and parents are not getting their wishes, so we must intervene. We cannot allow children to remain in perpetually broken schools. Help the schools – yes. Improve them through rigorous reforms – yes. But give options to parents and kids that never get options. We may or may not agree on what those options ought to be, but we should all agree that these parents should get a viable option for their child to get the help they need.

In most cases, no one is going to take a greater interest in a child’s education than the parents. What could be a more arrogant abuse of government than to trap a child in a school that the parents know is failing?

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If you agree that the time has come for a new approach to education, then I urge you to get involved in this debate. Your words can make a powerful impression, and I ask you to use them in the service of our children.

I know that sounds general, so let me make a specific suggestion. When you get back home, set up a meeting with your local superintendent. Ask about the district’s best and worst school, and ask for guesses about why they are different. Ask what the district is doing to improve its schools, and ask for suggestions about how you can help. You may want to add a weekly section on education, or create a student internship program, or you may think of something new.

Talking about education reform here in Washington is useful, but we must also talk about it back home where the decisions are made. It is only through hard work at the local level that reform will lead to results, and that the day may come that no child is left behind.

The full text of this speech can be found at this address: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2001/03/010323.html

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