Remarks to the National Education Association in San Francisco, California - Pres William J. Clinton - July 5, 1993 - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 12, 1993 by Bill Clinton

In safe schools, we can make sure our students know what they need to know. We can make sure that our students lead the world in math and science achievement. We can make sure that we can compete in the global economy and live in the global village. As I head overseas, I'm reminded how much more we need to do. We need to give our students a thirst for exploration and a sense of widening horizons. As one college president puts it, we need to acquire global literacy. Our students need to understand not only the meaning of democracy but the spirit of Japanese culture and the richness of African history. We need them to know more about foreign languages than just how to order in a restaurant. Foreign languages in this era aren't simply a sign of refinement, they are a survival tool for America in the global economy.

And while I have said repeatedly all across this country, the magic of education is what occurs in the classroom and what the parents give if they do their job, it is still clear that your National Government has a role to play and must be your partner. Our job is to provide leadership, to set standards, to offer incentives that will help States and local school systems chart their own path to excellence with responsibility and accountability from all in the system. Most of all, we can do that if we are your partners. And I believe that the president of this organization would say we have had the partnership I promised in the campaign of 1992, and we will continue to have it through the work of Secretary Riley and Secretary Reich at the Labor Department and our entire Cabinet. We want the teachers of America to be the engines of reform. And we are convinced that they will be.

Our education agenda is ambitious, and its heart is Goals 2000, which enshrines into law the national education goals and world-class standards. We must reach them by the turn of the century. The legislation we need to make it happen, enshrining Goals 2000, is awaiting action now in both Houses of Congress. It has bipartisan support, thanks in large measure to the Herculian efforts of the Secretary of Education.

Goals 2000 will give parents and students and teachers a clear assessment of classroom performance. It will encourage schools to be more creative in organizing classrooms, training teachers, and motivating students. It will help students to prepare for work after graduation. It will provide funding to support the reform efforts that are blossoming all across America. It will mean that the investments we propose to make in Head Start and other early childhood programs, like immunization, will actually be able to bear fruits so that the gains from preschool will be able to be made permanent instead of being lost if we have the right sort of goals and the right sort of standards and the right sort of partnership and support. That is what we seek through Goals 2000.

I intend to fight hard for this bill's passage. And I intend to fight hard against anything that will water it down, weaken it, or divert it from its essential mission: partnerships with people at the State and local level. We cannot run the schools of this country from Washington, DC. We need to empower you to run them.