Remarks to the community at Jackson Mann Elementary School in Allston, Massachusetts

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Feb 8, 1999

Now, this is what Boston is committed to doing, but this is what every place in America should do. And in our budget, we have $200 million to help them do it. We also call for ending social promotion, but we say - and I want to reiterate that - it's not the students who are failing; it's the system's failing them. So you don't want to punish the students; you want to change the system.

Therefore, among other things in this budget, we call for tripling the funds available for after-school and summer school programs to help kids learn more. In 3 years - listen to this - 3 years ago, Congress appropriated $1 million for the Federal contribution to after-school programs. Then, the year before last, it was 40; then last year it was 200; and this year I hope it's going to be 600; and we'll have a million more children in every State in this country off the streets, in the classroom, learning more, and having a better future.

We also have to give more support for teachers, more support for teacher development, more support for teacher education, more understanding of what's involved here. You have 53 million people, and you're going to have a couple of - according to Secretary Riley, a couple of million more teachers retire in the next few years.

It should not - let me just say something. One of the big reasons that the test scores go down in math and science is that the teacher shortage has been so profound that there are a huge number of our teachers in America today in our junior and senior high schools, our middle schools and high schools, teaching courses in which they didn't have a college major or even a minor, because there was no one else available to teach them.

And we have to do more to support the recruitment and the support and the continuing teacher development of those people. One of the things in this budget that I think is particularly important, even though it's not a big number, is that we have funds for 7,000 college scholarships for young people where we pay their way to college in return for their commitment to teach for 4 years in an innercity school or some other place where there's a serious teacher shortage of trained teachers. This is a big deal. It can make a significant difference.

I also believe that all parents should get report cards on all schools. That has worked. The Boston schools are doing it. It ought to be done everywhere. People are entitled to information. Most towns in this country, you can find out more about the local restaurants than you can about the local schools, if you're a parent, unless you just go there and hang around. I mean, it's important.

And finally, interestingly enough, you know what the teachers' organizations and teachers at the grassroots asked us to do, to put into this bill? They said, "We should say that every school district should have a reasonable, comprehensive discipline code that is actually implemented." Teachers asked for that, and I think that's important.

So again I say, look at those kids. Think about what you want America to be like in 20 years. Think about what we're going to do with this golden moment for our economy, with this first budget surplus we've had in 30 years. There's a lot of things we need to do, but nothing is more important than giving our children a world-class education - nothing. And I hope you will support it.