A Culture of
                                   Achievement
                                   
                                   It is an honor to be here - and especially to share this
                                   podium with Rev. Flake. Your influence in this city - as
                                   a voice for change and a witness to Christian hope - is
                                   only greater since you returned full-time to the Allen
                                   AME Church. I read somewhere that you still call
                                   Houston your hometown, 30 years after you moved
                                   away. As governor of Texas, let me return the
                                   compliment. 

                                   We are proud of all you have accomplished, and
                                   honored to call you one of our own. It's been a pleasure
                                   touring New York these past few days with Governor
                                   Pataki. Everywhere I've gone, New York's old confidence
                                   is back - thanks, in large part, to a state senator who
                                   challenged the status quo six years ago. From tax cuts
                                   to criminal justice reform to charters, your agenda has
                                   been an example to governors around the country. 

                                   It is amazing how far this city has come in the 21 years
                                   since the Manhattan Institute was founded. You have
                                   won battles once considered hopeless. You have gone
                                   from winning debating points to winning majorities -
                                   and I congratulate you.

                                   Last month in California, I talked about disadvantaged
                                   children in troubled schools. I argued that the
                                   diminished hopes of our current system are sad and
                                   serious - the soft bigotry of low expectations. 

                                   And I set out a simple principle: Federal funds will no
                                   longer flow to failure. Schools that do not teach and will
                                   not change must have some final point of
                                   accountability. A moment of truth, when their Title 1
                                   funds are divided up and given to parents, for tutoring
                                   or a charter school or some other hopeful option. In the
                                   best case, schools that are failing will rise to the
                                   challenge and regain the confidence of parents. In the
                                   worst case, we will offer scholarships to America's
                                   neediest children. 

                                   In any case, the federal government will no longer pay
                                   schools to cheat poor children.

                                   But this is the beginning of our challenge, not its end.
                                   The final object of education reform is not just to shun
                                   mediocrity; it is to seek excellence. It is not just to
                                   avoid failure; it is to encourage achievement. 

                                   Our nation has a moral duty to ensure that no child is
                                   left behind. 

                                   And we also, at this moment, have a great national
                                   opportunity - to ensure that every child, in every public
                                   school, is challenged by high standards that meet the
                                   high hopes of parents. To build a culture of achievement
                                   that matches the optimism and aspirations of our
                                   country.

                                   Not long ago, this would have seemed incredible. Our
                                   education debates were captured by a deep pessimism. 

                                   For decades, waves of reform were quickly revealed as
                                   passing fads, with little lasting result. For decades,
                                   funding rose while performance stagnated. Most
                                   parents, except in some urban districts, have not seen
                                   the collapse of education. They have seen a slow slide
                                   of expectations and standards. Schools where poor
                                   spelling is called "creative." Where math is "fuzzy" and
                                   grammar is optional. Where grade inflation is the norm. 

                                   Schools where spelling bees are canceled for being too
                                   competitive and selecting a single valedictorian is
                                   considered too exclusive. Where advancing from one
                                   grade to the next is unconnected to advancing skills.
                                   Schools where, as in Alice in Wonderland, "Everyone has
                                   won, and all must have prizes." 

                                   We are left with a nagging sense of lost potential. A
                                   sense of what could be, but is not. 

                                   It led the late Albert Shanker, of the American
                                   Federation of Teachers, to conclude: "Very few American
                                   pupils are performing anywhere near where they could
                                   be performing." 

                                   This cuts against the grain of American character. Most
                                   parents know that the self-esteem of children is not
                                   built by low standards, it is built by real
                                   accomplishments. Most parents know that good
                                   character is tied to an ethic of study and hard work and
                                   merit - and that setbacks are as much a part of learning
                                   as awards. 

                                   Most Americans know that a healthy democracy must be
                                   committed both to equality and to excellence.

                                   Until a few years ago, the debates of politics seemed
                                   irrelevant to these concerns. Democrats and
                                   Republicans argued mainly about funding and
                                   procedures - about dollars and devolution. Few talked
                                   of standards or accountability or of excellence for all our
                                   children. 

                                   But all this is beginning to change. In state after state,
                                   we are seeing a profound shift of priorities. An "age of
                                   accountability" is starting to replace an era of low
                                   expectations. And there is a growing conviction and
                                   confidence that the problems of public education are not
                                   an endless road or a hopeless maze. 

                                   The principles of this movement are similar from New
                                   York to Florida, from Massachusetts to Michigan. Raise
                                   the bar of standards. 

                                   Give schools the flexibility to meet them. Measure
                                   progress. Insist on results. Blow the whistle on failure.
                                   Provide parents with options to increase their influence.
                                   And don't give up on anyone.

                                   There are now countless examples of public schools
                                   transformed by great expectations. Places like Earhart
                                   Elementary in Chicago, where students are expected to
                                   compose essays by the second grade. 

                                   Where these young children participate in a Junior Great
                                   Books program, and sixth graders are reading To Kill a
                                   Mockingbird. The principal explains, "All our children are
                                   expected to work above grade level and learn for the
                                   sake of learning... We instill a desire to overachieve.
                                   Give us an average child and we'll make him an
                                   overachiever."

                                   This is a public school, and not a wealthy one. And it
                                   proves what is possible. 

                                   No one in Texas now doubts that public schools can
                                   improve. We are witnessing the promise of high
                                   standards and accountability. We require that every
                                   child read by the third grade, without exception or
                                   excuse. Every year, we test students on the academic
                                   basics. We disclose those results by school. We
                                   encourage the diversity and creativity of charters. We
                                   give local schools and districts the freedom to chart
                                   their own path to excellence.

                                   I certainly don't claim credit for all these changes. But
                                   my state is proud of what we have accomplished
                                   together. Last week, the federal Department of
                                   Education announced that Texas eighth graders have
                                   some of the best writing skills in the country. In 1994,
                                   there were 67 schools in Texas rated "exemplary"
                                   according to our tests. This year, there are 1,120. We
                                   are proud, but we are not content. Now that we are
                                   meeting our current standards, I am insisting that we
                                   elevate those standards. 

                                   Now that we are clearing the bar, we are going to raise
                                   the bar - because we have set our sights on excellence.

                                   At the beginning of the 1990s, so many of our nation's
                                   problems, from education to crime to welfare, seemed
                                   intractable - beyond our control. But something
                                   unexpected happened on the way to cultural decline.
                                   Problems that seemed inevitable proved to be
                                   reversible. They gave way to an optimistic, governing
                                   conservatism. 

                                   Here in New York, Mayor Giuliani brought order and
                                   civility back to the streets - cutting crime rates by 50
                                   percent. In Wisconsin, Governor Tommy Thompson
                                   proved that welfare dependence could be reversed -
                                   reducing his rolls by 91 percent. Innovative mayors and
                                   governors followed their lead - cutting national welfare
                                   rolls by nearly half since 1994, and reducing the murder
                                   rate to the lowest point since 1967. 

                                   Now education reform is gaining a critical mass of
                                   results.

                                   In the process, conservatism has become the creed of
                                   hope. The creed of aggressive, persistent reform. The
                                   creed of social progress.

                                   Too often, on social issues, my party has painted an
                                   image of America slouching toward Gomorrah. Of course
                                   there are challenges to the character and compassion of
                                   our nation - too many broken homes and broken lives. 

                                   But many of our problems - particularly education, crime
                                   and welfare dependence - are yielding to good sense
                                   and strength and idealism. In states and cities around
                                   the country, we are making, not just points and
                                   pledges, but progress. We are demonstrating the genius
                                   for self-renewal at the heart of the American
                                   experiment.

                                   Too often, my party has focused on the national
                                   economy, to the exclusion of all else - speaking a
                                   sterile language of rates and numbers, of CBO this and
                                   GNP that. 

                                   Of course we want growth and vigor in our economy. But
                                   there are human problems that persist in the shadow of
                                   affluence. And the strongest argument for conservative
                                   ideals - for responsibility and accountability and the
                                   virtues of our tradition - is that they lead to greater
                                   justice, less suffering, more opportunity.

                                   Too often, my party has confused the need for limited
                                   government with a disdain for government itself. 

                                   But this is not an option for conservatives. At the
                                   constitutional convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin
                                   argued that the strength of our nation depends "on the
                                   general opinion of the goodness of government." Our
                                   Founders rejected cynicism, and cultivated a noble love
                                   of country. That love is undermined by sprawling,
                                   arrogant, aimless government. It is restored by focused
                                   and effective and energetic government. 

                                   And that should be our goal: A limited government,
                                   respected for doing a few things and doing them well.

                                   This is an approach with echoes in our history. Echoes
                                   of Lincoln and emancipation and the Homestead Act and
                                   land-grant colleges. Echoes of Theodore Roosevelt and
                                   national parks and the Panama Canal. Echoes of Reagan
                                   and a confrontation with communism that sought
                                   victory, not stalemate.

                                   What are the issues that challenge us, that summon us,
                                   in our time? Surely one of them must be excellence in
                                   education. Surely one of them must be to rekindle the
                                   spirit of learning and ambition in our common schools.
                                   And one of our great opportunities and urgent duties is
                                   to remake the federal role.

                                   Even as many states embrace education reform, the
                                   federal government is mired in bureaucracy and
                                   mediocrity. 

                                   It is an obstacle, not an ally. Education bills are often
                                   rituals of symbolic spending without real accountability
                                   - like pumping gas into a flooded engine. For decades,
                                   fashionable ideas have been turned into programs, with
                                   little knowledge of their benefits for students and
                                   teachers. And even the obvious failures seldom
                                   disappear. 

                                   This is a perfect example of government that is big -
                                   and weak. Of government that is grasping - and
                                   impotent. 

                                   Let me share an example. The Department of Education
                                   recently streamlined the grant application process for
                                   states. The old procedure involved 487 different steps,
                                   taking an average of 26 weeks. So, a few years ago, the
                                   best minds of the administration got together and
                                   "reinvented" the grant process. Now it takes a mere 216
                                   steps, and the wait is 20 weeks. 

                                   If this is reinventing government, it makes you wonder
                                   how this administration was ever skilled enough and
                                   efficient enough to create the Internet. I don't want to
                                   tinker with the machinery of the federal role in
                                   education. I want to redefine that role entirely. 

                                   I strongly believe in local control of schools and
                                   curriculum. I have consistently placed my faith in states
                                   and schools and parents and teachers - and that faith,
                                   in Texas, has been rewarded. 

                                   I also believe a president should define and defend the
                                   unifying ideals of our nation - including the quality of
                                   our common schools. He must lead, without controlling.
                                   He must set high goals - without being high-handed.
                                   The inertia of our education bureaucracy is a national
                                   problem, requiring a national response. Sometimes
                                   inaction is not restraint - it is complicity. Sometimes it
                                   takes the use of executive power to empower others. 

                                   Effective education reform requires both pressure from
                                   above and competition from below - a demand for high
                                   standards and measurement at the top, given
                                   momentum and urgency by expanded options for
                                   parents and students. So, as president, here is what I'll
                                   do. First, I will fundamentally change the relationship of
                                   the states and federal government in education. Now
                                   we have a system of excessive regulation and no
                                   standards. In my administration, we will have minimal
                                   regulation and high standards. 

                                   Second, I will promote more choices for parents in the
                                   education of their children. In the end, it is parents,
                                   armed with information and options, who turn the
                                   theory of reform into the reality of excellence. 

                                   All reform begins with freedom and local control. It
                                   unleashes creativity. It permits those closest to children
                                   to exercise their judgment. And it also removes the
                                   excuse for failure. Only those with the ability to change
                                   can be held to account. 

                                   But local control has seldom been a priority in
                                   Washington. In 1965, when President Johnson signed
                                   the very first Elementary and Secondary Education Act,
                                   not one school board trustee, from anywhere in the
                                   country, was invited to the ceremony. Local officials
                                   were viewed as the enemy. And that attitude has
                                   lingered too long. 

                                   As president, I will begin by taking most of the 60
                                   different categories of federal education grants and
                                   paring them down to five: improving achievement
                                   among disadvantaged children; promoting fluency in
                                   English; training and recruiting teachers; encouraging
                                   character and school safety; and promoting innovation
                                   and parental choice. Within these divisions, states will
                                   have maximum flexibility to determine their priorities. 

                                   They will only be asked to certify that their funds are
                                   being used for the specific purposes intended - and the
                                   federal red tape ends there.

                                   This will spread authority to levels of government that
                                   people can touch. And it will reduce paperwork -
                                   allowing schools to spend less on filing forms and more
                                   on what matters: teachers' salaries and children
                                   themselves.

                                   In return, we will ask that every state have a real
                                   accountability system - meaning that they test every
                                   child, every year, in grades three through eight, on the
                                   basics of reading and math; broadly disclose those
                                   results by school, including on the Internet; and have
                                   clear consequences for success and failure. States will
                                   pick their own tests, and the federal government will
                                   share the costs of administering them. 

                                   States can choose tests off-the-shelf, like Arizona;
                                   adapt tests like California; or contract for new tests like
                                   Texas. Over time, if a state's results are improving, it
                                   will be rewarded with extra money - a total of $500
                                   million in awards over five years. If scores are stagnant
                                   or dropping, the administrative portion of their federal
                                   funding - about 5 percent - will be diverted to a fund
                                   for charter schools. 

                                   We will praise and reward success - and shine a
                                   spotlight of shame on failure.

                                   What I am proposing today is a fresh start for the
                                   federal role in education. A pact of principle. Freedom in
                                   exchange for achievement. Latitude in return for results.
                                   Local control with one national goal: excellence for
                                   every child.

                                   I am opposed to national tests, written by the federal
                                   government. 

                                   If Washington can control the content of tests, it can
                                   dictate the content of state curricula - a role our central
                                   government should not play. 

                                   But measurement at the state level is essential.
                                   Without testing, reform is a journey without a compass.
                                   Without testing, teachers and administrators cannot
                                   adjust their methods to meet high goals. Without
                                   testing, standards are little more than scraps of paper. 

                                   Without testing, true competition is impossible.
                                   Without testing, parents are left in the dark. 

                                   In fact, the greatest benefit of testing - with the power
                                   to transform a school or a system - is the information it
                                   gives to parents. They will know - not just by rumor or
                                   reputation, but by hard numbers - which schools are
                                   succeeding and which are not. 

                                   Given that information, more parents will be pulled into
                                   activism - becoming participants, not spectators, in the
                                   education of their children. Armed with that information,
                                   parents will have the leverage to force reform. 

                                   Information is essential. But reform also requires
                                   options. Monopolies seldom change on their own - no
                                   matter how good the intentions of those who lead
                                   them. Competition is required to jolt a bureaucracy out
                                   of its lethargy. 

                                   So my second goal for the federal role of education is to
                                   increase the options and influence of parents. 

                                   The reform of Title 1 I've proposed would begin this
                                   process. We will give parents with children in failing
                                   schools - schools where the test scores of Title 1
                                   children show no improvement over three years - the
                                   resources to seek more hopeful options. This will
                                   amount to a scholarship of about $1,500 a year. 

                                   And parents can use those funds for tutoring or tuition -
                                   for anything that gives their children a fighting chance
                                   at learning. The theory is simple. Public funds must be
                                   spent on things that work - on helping children, not
                                   sustaining failed schools that refuse to change.

                                   The response to this plan has been deeply encouraging.
                                   Yet some politicians have gone to low performing
                                   schools and claimed my plan would undermine them. 

                                   Think a moment about what that means. It means
                                   visiting a school and saying, in essence, "You are
                                   hopeless. Not only can't you achieve, you can't even
                                   improve." That is not a defense of public education, it is
                                   a surrender to despair. That is not liberalism, it is
                                   pessimism. It is accepting and excusing an educational
                                   apartheid in our country - segregating poor children into
                                   a world without the hope of change.

                                   Everyone, in both parties, seems to agree with
                                   accountability in theory. But what could accountability
                                   possibly mean if children attend schools for 12 years
                                   without learning to read or write? Accountability without
                                   consequences is empty - the hollow shell of reform. And
                                   all our children deserve better.

                                   In our education reform plan, we will give states more
                                   flexibility to use federal funds, at their option, for
                                   choice programs - including private school choice. 

                                   In some neighborhoods, these new options are the first
                                   sign of hope, of real change, that parents have seen for
                                   a generation.

                                   But not everyone wants or needs private school choice.
                                   Many parents in America want more choices, higher
                                   standards and more influence within their public
                                   schools. This is the great promise of charter schools -
                                   the path that New York is now beginning. And this, in
                                   great part, is a tribute to the Manhattan Institute. 

                                   If charters are properly done - free to hire their own
                                   teachers, adopt their own curriculum, set their own
                                   operating rules and high standards - they will change
                                   the face of American education. Public schools - without
                                   bureaucracy. Public schools - controlled by parents.
                                   Public schools - held to the highest goals. Public
                                   schools - as we imagined they could be. 

                                   For parents, they are schools on a human scale, where
                                   their voice is heard and heeded. For students, they are
                                   more like a family than a factory - a place where it is
                                   harder to get lost. For teachers, who often help found
                                   charter schools, they are a chance to teach as they've
                                   always wanted. Says one charter school teacher in
                                   Boston: "We don't have to wait to make changes. We
                                   don't have to wait for the district to decide that what
                                   we are doing is within the rules... 

                                   So we can really put the interests of the kids first." 

                                   This morning I visited the new Sisulu Children's
                                   Academy in Harlem - New York's first charter school. In
                                   an area where only a quarter of children can read at or
                                   above grade level, Sisulu Academy offers a core
                                   curriculum of reading, math, science and history. There
                                   will be an extended school day, and the kids will also
                                   learn computer skills, art, music and dance. And there is
                                   a waiting list of 100 children.

                                   This is a new approach - even a new definition of public
                                   education. These schools are public because they are
                                   publicly funded and publicly accountable for results. The
                                   vision of parents and teachers and principals determines
                                   the rest. Money follows the child. The units of delivery
                                   get smaller and more personal. Some charters go back
                                   to basics... some attract the gifted ... some emphasize
                                   the arts. 

                                   It is a reform movement that welcomes diversity, but
                                   demands excellence. And this is the essence of real
                                   reform.

                                   Charter schools benefit the children within them - as
                                   well as the public school students beyond them. The
                                   evidence shows that competition often strengthens all
                                   the schools in a district. In Arizona, in places where
                                   charters have arrived - teaching phonics and extending
                                   hours and involving parents - suddenly many traditional
                                   public schools are following suit. 

                                   The greatest problem facing charter schools is practical
                                   - the cost of building them. Unlike regular public
                                   schools, they receive no capital funds. And the typical
                                   charter costs about $1.5 million to construct. Some are
                                   forced to start in vacant hotel rooms or strip malls. 

                                   As president, I want to fan the spark of charter schools
                                   into a flame. My administration will establish a Charter
                                   School Homestead Fund, to help finance these start-up
                                   costs. 

                                   We will provide capital to education entrepreneurs -
                                   planting new schools on the frontiers of reform. This
                                   fund will support $3 billion in loan guarantees in my
                                   first two years in office - enough to seed 2,000 schools.
                                   Enough to double the existing number. 

                                   This will be a direct challenge to the status quo in
                                   public education - in a way that both changes it and
                                   strengthens it. With charters, someone cares enough to
                                   say, "I'm dissatisfied." 

                                   Someone is bold enough to say, "I can do better." And
                                   all our schools will aim higher if we reward that kind of
                                   courage and vision. 

                                   And we will do one thing more for parents. We will
                                   expand Education Savings Accounts to cover education
                                   expenses in grades K through 12, allowing parents or
                                   grandparents to contribute up to $5,000 dollars per
                                   year, per student. Those funds can be withdrawn
                                   tax-free for tuition payments, or books, or tutoring or
                                   transportation - whatever students need most. 

                                   Often this nation sets out to reform education for all
                                   the wrong reasons - or at least for incomplete ones.
                                   Because the Soviets launch Sputnik. Or because children
                                   in Singapore have high test scores. Or because our new
                                   economy demands computer operators. 

                                   But when parents hope for their children, they hope with
                                   nobler goals. Yes, we want them to have the basic
                                   skills of life. But life is more than a race for riches. 

                                   A good education leads to intellectual self-confidence,
                                   and ambition and a quickened imagination. It helps us,
                                   not just to live, but to live well. 

                                   And this private good has public consequences. In his
                                   first address to Congress, President Washington called
                                   education "the surest basis of public happiness."
                                   America's founders believed that self-government
                                   requires a certain kind of citizen. 

                                   Schooled to think clearly and critically, and to know
                                   America's civic ideals. Freed, by learning, to rise, by
                                   merit. Education is the way a democratic culture
                                   reproduces itself through time.

                                   This is the reason a conservative should be passionate
                                   about education reform - the reason a conservative
                                   should fight strongly and care deeply. Our common
                                   schools carry a great burden for the common good. And
                                   they must be more than schools of last resort. 

                                   Every child must have a quality education - not just in
                                   islands of excellence. Because we are a single nation
                                   with a shared future. Because, as Lincoln said, we are
                                   "brothers of a common country." 

                                   Thank you. 


