Remarks at Highland Park Elementary School in Landover, Maryland: week ending Friday, July 11, 2003

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 14, 2003

July 7, 2003

Thank you all. Thanks for coming. Please. Windy, thank you very much. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of your dedication. It is a great country where Windy can come from a Head Start program and is now a leader in the movement to make sure Head Start fulfills the promise of the program.

First, I want to thank the good folks here at Highland Park Elementary School for letting me come by and see a program which works. I don't know if the people in the State of Maryland know this--I know the Governor does--that the teachers here and the program here uses a strategy, what they call a Center for Improving Readiness for Children, Learning, and Education, C.I.R.C.L.E., which is a model program. It's a program that incorporates profound and simple reading lessons necessary to lay the foundation for future readers. And it's a program that's working. There is a strong emphasis on learning. There is obviously the continued Head Start focus on good nutrition and health care. This program also works well because the parents are involved.

So, I've really come to say a couple of things. One, I want to thank the good folks at this learning institution for your focus and dedication. I also want to say that this is possible, this program is possible, to be spread around the country. I mean, this is what we need to do. That's what we're here to talk about. We're really here to talk about how to make sure Head Start works.

I'll never forget the lady in Houston, Texas, who stood up at one time and she said, "Reading is the new civil right." Her point was, is that if you can't read, it is hard to access the greatness of America. And if reading is the new civil right, a good place to start with civil rights is at the Head Start programs all across the country.

And that's what we're here to talk about, how to make then work better. They're working okay. We want better than okay in America. We want excellence. Windy understands that, and I want to thank her for working with my Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson. I appreciate you coming, Tommy.

And I appreciate my friend Rod Paige. He's the Secretary of Education. If you noticed, the two Secretaries are here, Health and Human Services and Education. The idea is to combine both focuses, both Departments into one when it comes to Head Start. The Head Start program will stay under Tommy's purview, but we want it to become an Education Department as well.

I mean, after all, you've got a million kids gathered together at one time during the day. If you've got a million kids that may be, as they call them in the education world, at-risk readers, let's get it right early then. That's what we're saying. And that's what this initiative is attempting to do.

I appreciate Bob Ehrlich, the Governor of this great State. He knows what he's doing when it comes to education. He's got a great wife, the First Lady, Kendel, with us as well. Governor Ehrlich sets high standards. He challenges what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. He understands if you lower the bar, assign certain kids to failure based upon demographics, that's precisely what you'll get in the State of Maryland. So he said, "We ought to raise the bar." He believes every child can learn. And so does the Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. They understand that high standards will yield high results. And the best place to start in achieving high standards is with the littlest of children.

I want to thank very much Congressman John Boehner for coming today. The Congressman is not from Maryland; he's from Ohio. But he's an important figure since he's the chairmaan of the House Education Committee which is marking up legislation which will help us spread excellence to the Head Start programs all across the country. Congressman, thanks for coming. I look forward to continuing to work with him.

He also is one of the authors of what we call the No Child Left Behind Act, which I'll talk about a little bit later. But the No Child Left Behind Act essentially says we expect every child to learn, and there is going to be high standards and strong accountability measures to every State in the Union. In return for increased Title I funding and in return for an increase in the Federal budget of elementary and secondary schools act money, we expect results. You see, we're not going to just spend money and hope something positive happens. We're going to spend money and see results.

Well, if you believe in high standards and accountability, then it's really important to get the young kids up to the starting line at the same time. And that's why the Head Start reforms we're going to talk about are important, the reforms which John and his committee are carrying to the floor of the House relatively soon.

I want to thank Nancy Grasmick, who is the State superintendent of schools in Maryland. I'm honored that you're here. Thank you for coming, and thank you for taking on a tough job. I appreciate Andre Hornsby as the superintendent of schools, an even tougher job. Government closest to the people is sometimes government that's the hardest. And I want to thank Guylaine Richard, who is the program director for the Head Start. I appreciate, Guylaine, you opening up this chance for me to come and see a program which works.