A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

I am so pleased that Paul Patton, your dynamic governor, is with us today. He is a national leader when it comes to education reform, and he is now leading a new national commission that is taking a serious look at the American high school-specifically the senior year of high school. How we redefine the American high school is now getting the attention it deserves, including a major cover story in this week's U.S. News and World Report magazine.

In the last few days I have been quite busy in Washington, and that's the way it should be. I intend to push hard to the very end of this administration and I know that President Clinton intends to do the same.

On Saturday, the president gave his weekly radio address and focused on the need to modernize our nation's schools. He made it quite clear to the Congress that passing school modernization legislation is something that Congress must do this year.

I believe we stand a very good chance of winning this important battle. Over 229 members of the House-a clear bipartisan majority-are prepared to vote this legislation through.

And yesterday the president announced great news for American education and for America's taxpayers. I am happy to report that, for the eighth consecutive year, the student loan default rate has declined. It is now at its lowest point ever-6.9 percent.

Now that's important to all of us. If the default rate is high-and when I first became secretary, it was 22.4 percent-money that should be spent improving schools gets diverted to pay off defaulted college loans.

So, we have worked hard to reduce the default rate in the last eight years, while at the same time we have increased collections and increased savings through creation of the direct loan program. In the process we have saved taxpayers $18 billion.

The fact that Bill Clinton is pressing forward as hard as he can at this point in the administration says something about him that I have known for a very long time. No one is more of a fighter for education than President Clinton, and Al Gore has stood with him every step of the way.

Let's remember how far we have come in challenging the status quo. We have fought side by side, beginning with the days when we faced the largest budget deficit in our nation's history. There were voices then that said, "We must cut education-cut it to the bone." But Bill Clinton and Al Gore would have none of that.

We fought side by side in 1995 and 1996 when Newt Gingrich and his allies in the Congress wanted to close down the government and eliminate the Department. Remember those days? But we prevailed because we heard the American people ask us to help improve their public schools, and we responded with optimism and determination to do so.

And we fought side by side to convince the American people that now is the right time to make education a national priority-to invest in smaller classes; better teachers; modern schools; new technology for learning; a national emphasis on improving reading; and new tax credits and loans to help working and middle-class families pay for their children's college education.

Together, we helped make education our nation's number one priority, and that is something we all can be proud of. But even now, there are still some people out there who want to focus on the negative instead of the positive. Some people seem bent on tearing down public education every chance they get.

So let me set the record straight. People who say there's an "education recession" in America don't have their eyes open. They haven't done their homework. We have been challenging the status quo. We have been making positive changes. And, we are now starting to see the positive results from our many years of effort.

Reading and math scores are up at all levels. SAT and ACT scores have soared on our watch. The proportion of Americans who have completed high school or received a GED has risen to an all-time high. More students are going directly to college, and more students are graduating from college than ever before. Almost 95 percent of schools are now connected to the Internet.

I am especially disappointed by people who want to run down public education. I am tired of the negative political voices that tell us that vouchers are the silver-bullet answer and the only way to improve public education. Well, they aren't.

Vouchers drain funds from public education and they divert us from the real challenge of lifting up all of our children-not just a few of our children, but all of our children. Vouchers are a mistake. And I believe that they are a mistake for private and parochial schools as well, because they, in turn, will become less private and less parochial.

I believe that years from now people will look back and say, yes, at the beginning of the 21st century, public education truly was transformed. Standards were raised. High expectations became the hallmark of every public school. A new sense of flexibility and innovation took hold, and parents were given more choices. And teachers finally got the respect and the pay that they deserve.

We are making progress, and this great country of ours is moving in the right direction as well. Just think about our many blessings. We have a prosperous economy. The number of children living in poverty is declining. And the teenage birth rate is the lowest it has been in 40 years. These are just a few of the positive signs that indicate America is moving forward.

When people ask me what my biggest achievement has been as secretary of education, I tell them this-that together we fought to end the tyranny of low expectations. At long last, we as a nation understand that we must have high expectations for all of our children-not just the top one-third who usually go on to college, but the young people in the middle who often drift through school, and the young people at the bottom, who for generations were simply left behind and forgotten.

Is there more work to be done? Of course there is! But in the last eight years we have built a new foundation for American education. We have set the stage for a renaissance in American education. We are in a time of great opportunity and promise. We must not lose this opportunity and promise.

This is why we are fighting so hard in this last budget battle with the Congress. We want a real budget with real investments for all of America's children. It's common sense, isn't it?

If you demand more, you need to invest more, and target your investments to the children with the greatest need.

This is why we want the next installment on class-size funding so we can hire 20,000 new teachers.

And this is why we are determined to pass long overdue school modernization legislation. Instead of building new prisons, let's build modern, safe and healthy schools-palaces of learning that keep young people engaged and excited.

We are pushing hard to make sure that Congress invests $1 billion in teacher quality, recruitment and professional development. Quality teaching is the heart and soul of education reform. We need more quality teachers at every level-in our early childhood programs; in our primary grades to make sure that every child is reading well by the end of the 3rd grade; and in the later grades to sustain the progress we are seeing in math and science.

We also want Congress to get on the ball and meet the president's request for $1 billion for our after-school initiative. The demand for help across the country is overwhelming. Positive after-school programs, as all of you know, keep children out of harm's way.

We are very determined to make sure that one of our most promising new programs-GEAR UP-gets fully funded along with TRIO. And we want $250 million that the president requested for our Title I Accountability grants to help turn around low-performing schools.

I may be a lame duck, but I'm still the same duck I was on my first day as secretary of education. And that means I am going to fight for education every hour of every day, and I don't mind ruffling some feathers along the way.

Today America is prosperous, and our democratic ideals give hope to people around the globe. We are the greatest nation on earth, and America's educators deserve much of the credit. Let's never forget that. And let's never forget the people who are making the difference.

I'm talking about the teachers, principals, counselors and coaches-the librarians, school secretaries, bus drivers, cafeteria cooks, and custodial workers. I'm talking about the teachers and aides who go the extra mile for the disabled child and the community volunteers and everyone else who works to support our schools.

I'm also talking about the parents who read to their children every day, who show up on school nights and who stay up late to sew the costumes for the school play.

On behalf of a grateful nation, I thank each of you for everything that you are doing for America's children. It has been my great pleasure to visit with many of you, to see firsthand what you are accomplishing and to be your voice in Washington.

In the last eight years, we have gone through many ups and down together. Sometimes we have been in the valley and sometimes we even had to struggle to get a hearing. But through it all we have kept to the high ground. We have been realistic, yet hopeful. Instead of tearing down public education, we always have worked to build it up.

And over time our positive message of reform has gotten through. Let's keep it that way. With optimism and determination, let us go forward together to create a democracy of excellence for all of our children in the new century.

I want to close now with the words of a country and western song by Kathy Mattea. When you grow up in the South, you get partial to country and western music. I don't know why, since so many of the songs are sad and about life's troubles. I like this song because it's about children. A few years back I actually got Kathy Mattea to sing it at the White House. You'll understand why these words ring true. They are words that every parent and teacher understands.

"Sometimes I stop on my way home and watch the children play
And I wonder if they wonder what they'll be some day.
Some will dream big dreams and make it all come true
And others will go on dreaming things they'll never do.
We're all just seeds in God's hand.
We started the same-but where we land
It's sometimes fertile soil and sometimes sand.
We're all just seeds in God's hand."

The children we are educating are the seeds of greatness for the America we love. Some of them land in rocky soil, others land by the weeds and sometimes even in the weeds, and still others land in fertile soil. But, they all have potential.

Our task is to help all of them grow up wherever they land, to give them a sense of hope and purpose for the coming times. For here in this great nation of ours at the beginning of this new century, there should be no weeds in the gardens of our schools. This is my commitment to you. Thank you and God bless you.