Remarks to the National Catholic Educational Association - Week Ending Friday, January 9, 2004

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Jan 12, 2004

January 9, 2004

Welcome, please. Thanks for coming. Please be seated. Thanks for coming. [Laughter] Welcome to the people's house. We're glad you're here.

The last 100 years, the leadership of the National Catholic Education Association has been vital in advancing the work of Catholic schools around the Nation and, therefore, has been vital to the hopeful future of America. I'm honored to join you for celebrating your 100th anniversary. And this is a fitting place to celebrate the anniversary.

Catholic schools carry out a great mission, to serve God by building knowledge and character of our young people. It's a noble calling. It's an important part of the fabric of America. By teaching the Word of God, you prepare your students to follow a path of virtue and compassion and sacrifice for the rest of their lives. And by insisting on high standards for academic achievement, Catholic schools are a model for all schools around our country.

I was hoping to run into a fellow Texan today. [Laughter] His Excellency Gregory Aymond is the bishop from Austin, Texas. [Laughter] He is--I'm glad there's only a handful of Texans here. [Laughter] The bishop is the board chair of the National Catholic Education Association, and I want to thank you for joining us.

I appreciate Michael Guerra. Michael Guerra is the president of the National Catholic Education Association. Michael, thank you, and thank you for all the board members who graciously had a picture taken in the Blue Room with me. I appreciate you doing that.

His Excellency John Cummins, who is the bishop emeritus of Oakland, California, is with us. His Excellency, thank you for being here, sir.

I appreciate Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, and Dorian for joining us today.

I'm sorry my neighbor His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick is not with us, a decent man. [Laughter] I really, really am proud to call him friend. He's a really good guy, as we say in Texas.

I appreciate you all coming. I really do. Thanks for being here.

Catholic educators share the basic conviction that every child can learn, and every child can learn to lead a life of service. That's a pretty good mission statement, isn't it? Let us teach every child to read and write and add and subtract, and as we do so, let us teach every child to serve a cause greater than self. The whole Nation benefits because of the good scholars and good citizens who graduate from Catholic schools. That is a fact.

Through your faith in every child--and I emphasize "every child"--Catholic schools have overcome challenges and experienced remarkable results. It is well known that Catholic schools operate on small budgets. [Laughter] The per-pupil cost in a Catholic school classroom is substantially below the per-pupil costs of many other schools, public or private.

And yet, the results are astonishing: 2.6 million students who attend Catholic schools will graduate--that's 99 percent--and almost all go to college. Even though the per-pupil expenditure per classroom is low, the results are extremely high. And it says something is going right--[laughter]--starting with the fact that Catholic schools have high expectations. You challenge what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. You believe in the worth of every person and every child. You believe that inherent in every child is the capacity to learn. And you refuse to quit on any child.

The Catholic schools understand that love and discipline go hand in hand. The Catholic schools are willing to change curriculum if it doesn't work. The Catholic schools sometimes meet longer hours than some would expect is the norm. Take LaSalle Academy, a Catholic school in Philadelphia. Students attend classes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the school year is several weeks longer than average. Whatever it takes to make sure no child is left behind, the Catholic schools do.

In addition to learning to read and write, students take courses in computers and music and art. At David McDonough, the principal of the school said this, "We bombard them"--that would be his students--[laughter]--"We bombard them with love, attention, and work, and they thrive."

An important part of the Catholic education is the commitment to serving what our society calls the disadvantaged student, regardless of religious affiliation. I appreciate that a lot. These are the students who sometimes in the public school system are deemed to be uneducable and, therefore, are just moved through the system. The Catholic schools have done our country a great service by a special outreach to minority children, who make up 26 percent of the enrollment of our Catholic schools. This is a great service to those children and their parents and our country.

Catholic schools have a proven record of bringing out the best in every child, regardless of their background. And every school in America should live up to that standard. We want our public schools to live up to the standard you have set in Catholic schools.

I signed what's called the No Child Left Behind Act. It is the most historic education reform in a generation. It actually passed with bipartisan support, which is unusual for Washington these days. [Laughter] Let me tell you a little bit about the philosophy behind the law, and I think you'll find it to be reminiscent.