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3
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 2:00 PM Monday, Sept. 25
CONVOCATION, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
THURSDAY, SEPT. 28, 11:30 A.M.
SUBJECT:
(9/21/89 - DRAFT FOUR)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN N/c
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT N/C
BATES 1st Floor
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
BROMLEY
CARD
PINKERTON
CICCONI
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 P.M., Monday, September 25, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
89 SEP 25 25 A9: 48
hh:6v 62 68
James W. Clcconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Sept. 21, 1989
09 SEP22 PI:51
Draft: Four
Title: Jefferson
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: CONVOCATION, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA
Thursday, Sept. 28, 11:30 a.m.
It's a delight to be back in Charlottesville. My son Marvin
and my daughter-in-law Margaret have told me to be humble while
I'm at U. Hall. ( (You see, they told me you only do the wave for
Ralph Sampson. )) ////
( (Acknowledge governors, events of the last few days. )) I
have been deeply impressed by the commitment, the creativity and
the knowledge that you bring to education reform.
((I've also heard eloquent appeals from many authorities on
education in the last few weeks, from state legislators to
leaders in business and education. I have listened. And I am
deeply appreciative of all that I have heard. ))
( (But I want to share with you the concerns of someone from
an under-represented group in this debate -- grade-schoolers. I
got a letter from a boy from upstate New York who wrote me to
suggest several intriguing ideas. And his letter ended with the
mòst unusual proposal of all: He asked me to advance the cause
of science/ / by sending his teacher// to perform some research
//// in the Bermuda Triangle. ))
Of course, this little boy does not yet appreciate it, but
it will be the tough teachers that he will remember fondly as an
adult. The (("Johnnys)) of our schools are, in many ways, the
luckiest generation of children in history. Just last month,
2
these children observed, in the clarity of Voyager's sight, the
horizons of alien worlds, the majesty of space. Think what these
images would have meant to the ever-curious founder of this
university, who could only look through a primitive telescope at
faint patches of light, and wonder.
But our children are growing up in an age where wonder is
common place, and peace and prosperity are often taken for
granted. Our children are also the beneficiaries of a nation
that lavishes unsurpassed resources on their schooling. So in
many ways, we are close to fulfilling the Enlightenment dream of
universal education, a dream that became a reality in the
Shenandoah Valley, here at Mister Jefferson's school.
Every step we take at this University is a walk in Thomas
Jefferson's footsteps. When Jefferson first charted the ground
on which we gather today, there was just a field of grass, and a
horizon limited only by the blue mountains beyond. But Jefferson
surveyed a horizon no one else could see. He saw the graceful
dome of the Rotunda, and the elegance of the Lawn and its
pavilions. He saw meeting rooms and lectures halls -- and hoped
they would be teeming with professors and students yet unborn.
Jefferson fashioned his ethereal vision into solid reality,
brick by brick, book by book. And it is his University -- and
his dream -- that inspires us today to follow in his footsteps.
Thomas Jefferson was our first education president. He was
a relentless advocate for universal public education. He did so
because he had a "fundamental conviction that on- the 'good sense
3
of' an educated citizenry, we could build and defend a country of
liberty and justice."
I borrowed these last few words from a friend of mine. This
assessment of Thomas Jefferson came from another Renaissance man,
a man of our time -- the late A. Bartlett Giamatti. //
Like Jefferson, Bart's life was a metaphor for civility and
public service. And it is this commitment to public service that
we must carry on, not just as an education President, but as
education governors, as an education society.
We have come close to this Jeffersonian ideal of an
education society. And yet, after two centuries of progress, we
are backsliding. While millions of Americans read for pleasure,
millions of others don't read at all. While millions of
Americans graduate from college, millions of others never finish
high school. Jefferson said that no nation could long be both
ignorant and free. The state of our educational system is
nothing less than the future of our democracy.
So I come to Jefferson's university to make a frank
observation: This nation is moving away from the aspirations of
its founders. The Founding Fathers were as fluent in geography
and science as they were in Latin and French. They began as rapt
students of antiquity, the statecraft of Marcus Aurelius, the
philosophy of thinkers from Socrates to Cicero. And yet they
surpassed their ancient teachers to become the greatest political
philosophers of all time.
4
Our founders lived at a time when the purpose of education
was to develop the character of young people. Schools taught
literature, physics and geometry. But they also taught honesty,
discipline and service to country. Judge for yourself we always
impart these lessons today.
Jefferson wanted to redeem "that mass of talents which lies
buried in poverty." And for most of our history, education has
been the great champion of the poor, leveling all distinctions of
class, race and background. A century ago, the poorest parents
in the bleakest slum knew their children could go anywhere, could
be anything, if they could get an American education. Again,
judge for yourself if the same could be said today.
We've heard of high school graduates who believe New Mexico
is in Latin America. We've seen schools that are overrun by
crack and coke. We've read about children who cannot identify
George Bush, or, for that matter, George Washington. We are all,
by now, fully aware of the extent to which our nation is at risk.
This is not a time for assessment. This is a time for action. /
I have built my proposals for federal action in education
around four principles. First: Excellence in education should be
recognized and rewarded. Second: Federal funding should be
targeted to those who need it most. Third: Choice and
flexibility -- we should give more freedom to educators, as well
as to parents and students. And fourth and finally: Greater
accountability for all -- students, teachers, principals, and,
yes, ourselves -- elected officials.
5
Some say there is another answer -- to spend more money. I
do not wholly agree, although I have asked Congress to provide
nearly a half a billion dollars for ten worthy programs.
Your states may also choose to spend more. But to those who say
that money alone is the answer, I say that there is no one
answer. Our nation already spends more to educate our youth than
it does to defend them -- this year, 353 billion dollars in all.
Over the decades, while the rate of spending has escalated, high
school graduation rates and SAT scores have tumbled. So hard
experience teaches that we are simply not getting our money's
worth in education. // Our focus must no longer be on resources.
It must be on results.
This is my program. Some support it. Some do not. But I
am sure we all agree this is no time to work at cross purposes.
This is a time for us to coordinate our efforts to save our
schools. //
Education reform is not a distant goal to be passively
pursued. It is urgent. Imperative. Vital. In the past, one
could rise to the middle class without a high school education or
a special skill. You know as well as I that in the service
economy of the future, this will nc longer be possible. By the
year 2000, between five million and fifteen million low-skill
jobs will be replaced by positions that require vastly greater
knowledge and ability. If we do not find a way to reach that
quarter of young Americans who never attain a high school degree,
6
then the underclass will be truly permanent. And America will no
longer be synonymous with opportunity.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become. And come the next century -- just ten
years away -- what will we be? Will our descendants forget all
that we were and forsake all they could achieve? Will Americans
be the children, or the orphans, of the Enlightenment?
Bill Milliken, a friend of mine in the educational
community, told me a story last week about a boy he knows from an
inner-city neighborhood, a neighborhood where chaos and violence
reign. The child Bill knows was shot through his shoulder while
going to school.
Bill went to visit him in the hospital. The boy cried, and
Bill rose to get a nurse, thinking that the pain of his wound had
become unbearable. But it wasn't that; it wasn't that at all.
The boy said he was crying because he was afraid, afraid to go
home, afraid to walk the streets and afraid to go to school.
Before we do anything, we must first give these children what
they need most -- safety on the streets and sanctuary at school.
Then they can learn. ////
We must become a reading nation, to again fight for
universal literacy. We must grapple with the hard sciences. And
because education is as spiritual as it is practical, our
children must know why Americans died at Concord, at Gettysburg,
at Monte Cassino and Inchon. They must understand the generosity
7
of Andrew Carnegie, the genius of Alexander Graham Bell and the
heroism of Rosa Parks. //
To beat illiteracy, to again lead the world in science and
to know history by heart -- these are ambitious goals. To some,
they may seem impossible to achieve. But Americans are not a
people who aim for half-way. Nothing less than a full-fledged
challenge will mobilize us as a people.
As President, I am here to make such a challenge. As
governors, you can provide the leadership to match it.
You already are consulting with the state legislatures to
better our schools. Our teachers are already giving their heart
and soul to their jobs. But we have never before worked together
-- President and principal, governor and teacher -- to achieve
results in education.
This is only the third time in our 200 years as a nation
that a President has called a summit with the governors. And I
did not ask you to such an historic occasion merely to bemoan
what is wrong. We are here to work; to work together; to put the
future before the moment, and progress before partisanship, to
again make an American education the best in the world. //
We must begin with a social compact, a compact between
parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, state
legislators, governors and the Administration. Our compact is
founded not on promises, but on challenges. Let us start with
three challenges -- three radical departures from tradition.
8
I challenge you to join me, for the first time, to define
national goals and standards in education. I seek tighter
standards/ / higher goals// greater aspirations. ( (Specifics to
come. ) )
Second, I accept your challenge to loosen the grip of
federal restrictions. //// How many great ideas, how many grand
and noble experiments, have been impaled on the narrow spike of a
federal directive? Regulation is the enemy of the bold. And
bold action is what we need most of all. //
In return for greater flexibility from Washington, I ask
that you, in turn, ease state restrictions on local bodies. And
then we will challenge superintendents and principals to meet our
higher standards. I will start this process by issuing ( (an
executive order) ) on ( (date) ) to ( (language to come) )
Third, let us judge our efforts not by our intentions, but
by our results. We need to first know where we are, no matter
how unpleasant that realization may be. We have always measured
our progress against our past performance. But to get results,
we. must evaluate ourselves on a tougher grading curve -- one that
includes the other major industrial nations.
To get results, we will need a new spirit of competition
between students, between teachers and between schools -- a
report card for all.
And to get results, we will need discipline, structure and
goals. In a phrase, back to the basics.
0
9
Yet I do not counsel a naive nostalgia, a timid adherence to
the past. We should embrace only what works. And when hallowed
tradition proves to be hollow convention, then we must shatter
tradition. The public is ready for sweeping and far-reaching
changes, for lasting reform. We must// not// disappoint them.
////
Less than three percent of all families live on a farm; and
yet we still educate by an agrarian school calendar largely
unchanged since the 1880s. The school year could easily be
lengthened to more than 200 days, with generous breaks
throughout. Listen to the children. They will tell you that it
is a tossup as to which is more boring: nine straight months of
school, or three straight months of vacation. Let us shatter
this tradition.
Some school subjects may require hours a day; others
minutes. Yet we teach all subjects in rigid 55 minutes formats,
as if the human attention span were a Pavlovian ((PAHV-Low-Vian)
response to the ring of a school bell. School days, like school
years, are structured by custom, not by creativity. Let us
shatter this tradition.
Americans fully realize that when government bodies swell
beyond the boundaries of community interest, bureaucracy takes
control. We should scale our school districts to the communities
they serve, empowering parents and teachers alike. Large is
deadly. Let us shatter this tradition.
10
Reform requires even more of us. Too many parents have come
to see education as a service we can hand over to the school
boards, in much the same way we expect our cities to provide
electricity or water. But education is not a utility, not
something to be delegated to public policy. Education is a way
of life, and educational reform is an urgent responsibility for
every parent, every student, every community. Those who do not
advance the cause of education, hinder it. ////
Look to those who are already in the lead.
Look to Chelsea, Massachusetts, where Boston University has
been asked to assume control of a school system in trouble.
These schools will now stay open from 7:30 in the morning to 5:30
in the evening, serving as day-care centers for children whose
parents work. Eventually, Boston University will offer pre-
school classes for all children ages three to five, and "after-
school" programs involving arts and exercise.
Look to Milton Goldman and Jeffrey Reed -- teachers in Los
Angeles who use video science to entice the children of the
television age to enjoy reading.
Look to ( (name of teacher to come)) and every other teacher
who struggles to transform the dull and the rote into the magical
and the enterprising.
Some of these experiments are sure to come up short. But
for too many of our schools, experimentation is preferable to the
status quo, because the status quo could scarcely be worse. The
11
worthy and the useful will win out only if we give our schools
the freedom they deserve.
Choice is another form of freedom in education I referred to
earlier, and it is a demonstrated success. Parents should be
free to choose their schools. Principals should be free to
choose the best methods for their teachers. And schools should
be free to choose teachers with alternative certification --
those whose knowledge surpasses their credentials.
Of course, this summit will not, cannot, lead to a quick and
easy solution. We are embarking on the work of years. So let me
make a final proposal -- that we meet again in a less formal
setting to take stock of where we succeeded, and where we need to
redouble our efforts.
Every American must make the same assessment, for our
education is the work of a lifetime. With the average lifespan
lengthening to three-quarters of a century, it is absurd that we
should quit learning at age 18 or 22. Education shouldn't begin
with kindergarten, and end with a diploma and a handshake.
Education begins when we draw our first breath. And it stops
only when we breathe our last.
Our homes and our workplaces must be places of learning;
schools that continually sharpen our skills and upgrade our
competence. Seventy-five percent of the work force of the year
2000 are already on the job today. This makes vocational and
adult education essential.
12
Yet our most basic need for lifelong learning has nothing to
do with the trade balance, or the greying of the work force; it
is broader than the narrow compass of economics and government.
A scholar once wrote that great books are not lifeless
paper, but minds alive on the shelves. He observed that just as
the touch of a button on a stereo will fill the room with music,
SO by taking down one of these volumes, and opening it, one can
call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space,
and hear him speak to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.
As a nation, we can again hear these voices, feel this
enchantment -- every time a parent reads a bedtime story to a
sleepy child; every time a young scholar turns to the great
books. The day must come when every young American can know the
life of the mind.
That is why we have gathered here, at Mister Jefferson's
school. He was just one man, but look at what one man can do.
Imagine what we can do if we -- fifty-one strong are united by
a great cause. So let us dream. Let us talk. If need be, let
us argue. But in the end, let us let us walk together on a
journey to enlightenment, in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson.
////
Thank you for your hard work and dedication. Thank you for
your partnership. Let us leave Charlottesville determined to
work with each other, to work for America. God bless you all.
#
#
#
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 2:00 PM Monday, Sept. 25
CONVOCATION, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
THURSDAY, SEPT. 28, 11:30 A.M.
SUBJECT:
(9/21/89 - DRAFT FOUR)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
BROMLEY
CARD
PINKERTON
CICCONI
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 P.M., Monday, September 25, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
Please 60 ise scomments. (pp.2,4,5)
9/25/89
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Sept. 21, 1989
09 SEP22 P1:51
Draft: Four
Title: Jefferson
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
CONVOCATION, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA
Thursday, Sept. 28, 11:30 a.m.
It's a delight to be back in Charlottesville. My son Marvin
and my daughter-in-law Margaret have told me to be humble while
I'm at U. Hall. ((You see, they told me you only do the wave for
Ralph Sampson. )) ////
( (Acknowledge governors, events of the last few days.) ) I
have been deeply impressed by the commitment, the creativity and
the knowledge that you bring to education reform.
((I've also heard eloquent appeals from many authorities on
education in the last few weeks, from state legislators to
leaders in business and education. I have listened. And I am
deeply appreciative of all that I have heard. ))
( (But I want to share with you the concerns of someone from
an under-represented group in this debate -- grade-schoolers. I
got a letter from a boy from upstate New York who wrote me to
suggest several intriguing ideas. And his letter ended with the
most unusual proposal of all: He asked me to advance the cause
of science// by sending his teacher// to perform some research
//// in the Bermuda Triangle. ))
Of course, this little boy does not yet appreciate it, but
it will be the tough teachers that he will remember fondly as an
adult. The ( ("Johnnys) ) of our schools are, in many ways, the
luckiest generation of children in history. Just last month,
2
these children observed, in the clarity of Voyager's sight, the
horizons of alien worlds, the majesty of space. Think what these
images would have meant to the ever-curious founder of this
university, who could only look through a primitive telescope at
faint patches of light, and wonder.
But our children are growing up in an age where wonder is
would
common place, and peace and prosperity are often taken for
granted.
Cour
children are also the beneficiaries of a nation
that lavishes unsurpassed resources on their schooling
So in
many ways, we are close to fulfilling the Enlightenment dream of
misnead
will
universal education, a dream that became a reality in the
Shenandoah Valley, here at Mister Jefferson's school.
contaxt
Every step we take at this University is a walk in Thomas
Jefferson's footsteps. When Jefferson first charted the ground
on which we gather today, there was just a field of grass, and a
horizon limited only by the blue mountains beyond. But Jefferson
surveyed a horizon no one else could see. He saw the graceful
dome of the Rotunda, and the elegance of the Lawn and its
pavilions. He saw meeting rooms and lectures halls -- and hoped
they would be teeming with professors and students yet unborn.
Jefferson fashioned his ethereal vision into solid reality,
brick by brick, book by book. And it is his University -- and
his dream -- that inspires us today to follow in his footsteps.
Thomas Jefferson was our first education president. He was
a relentless advocate for universal public education. He did SO
because he had a "fundamental conviction that on the 'good sense
3
of' an educated citizenry, we could build and defend a country of
liberty and justice."
I borrowed these last few words from a friend of mine. This
assessment of Thomas Jefferson came from another Renaissance man,
a man of our time -- the late A. Bartlett Giamatti. //
Like Jefferson, Bart's life was a metaphor for civility and
public service. And it is this commitment to public service that
we must carry on, not just as an education President, but as
education governors, as an education society.
We have come close to this Jeffersonian ideal of an
education society. And yet, after two centuries of progress, we
are backsliding. While millions of Americans read for pleasure,
millions of others don't read at all. While millions of
Americans graduate from college, millions of others never finish
high school. Jefferson said that no nation could long be both
ignorant and free. The state of our educational system is
nothing less than the future of our democracy.
So I come to Jefferson's university to make a frank
observation: This nation is moving away from the aspirations of
its founders. The Founding Fathers were as fluent in geography
and science as they were in Latin and French. They began as rapt
students of antiquity, the statecraft of Marcus Aurelius, the
philosophy of thinkers from Socrates to Cicero. And yet they
surpassed their ancient teachers to become the greatest political
philosophers of all time.
4
Our founders lived at a time when the purpose of education
was to develop the character of young people. Schools taught
literature, physics and geometry. But they also taught honesty,
wheth
discipline and service to country. Judge for yourself we always
?
impart these lessons today.
Jefferson wanted to redeem "that mass of talents which lies
buried in poverty." And for most of our history, education has
been the great champion of the poor, leveling all distinctions of
class, race and background. A century ago, the poorest parents
in the bleakest slum knew their children could go anywhere, could
be anything, if they could get an American education. Again,
judge for yourself if the same could be said today.
We've heard of high school graduates who believe New Mexico
is in Latin America. We've seen schools that are overrun by
crack and coke. We've read about children who cannot identify
George Bush, or, for that matter, George Washington. We are all,
by now, fully aware of the extent to which our nation is at risk.
This is not a time for assessment. This is a time for action. //
I have built my proposals for federal action in education
around four principles. First: Excellence in education should be
recognized and rewarded. Second: Federal funding should be
targeted to those who need it most. Third: Choice and
flexibility -- we should give more freedom to educators, as well
as to parents and students. And fourth and finally: Greater
accountability for all -- students, teachers, principals, and,
yes, ourselves -- elected officials.
5
Some say there is another answer -- to spend more money. I
do not wholly agree, although I have asked Congress to provide
This will
nearly a half a billion dollars for ten worthy programs.
Your states may also choose to spend more. But to those who say
not
that money alone is the answer, I say that there is no one
other tvie
answer.
Our nation already spends more to educate our youth than
^
it does to defend them -- this year, 353 billion dollars in all
the vre datistic
Over the decades, while the rate of spending has escalated, high
school graduation rates and SAT scores have tumbled. So hard
were il. spring
experience teaches that we are simply not getting our money's
worth in education. // Our focus must no longer be on resources.
It must be on results.
This is my program. Some support it. Some do not. But I
am sure we all agree this is no time to work at cross purposes.
This is a time for us to coordinate our efforts to save our
schools. / /
Education reform is not a distant goal to be passively
pursued. It is urgent. Imperative. Vital. In the past, one
could rise to the middle class without a high school education or
a special skill. You know as well as I that in the service
economy of the future, this will no longer be possible. By the
year 2000, between five million and fifteen million low-skill
jobs will be replaced by positions that require vastly greater
knowledge and ability. If we do not find a way to reach that
quarter of young Americans who never attain a high school degree,
6
then the underclass will be truly permanent. And America will no
longer be synonymous with opportunity.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become. And come the next century -- just ten
years away -- what will we be? Will our descendants forget all
that we were and forsake all they could achieve? Will Americans
be the children, or the orphans, of the Enlightenment?
Bill Milliken, a friend of mine in the educational
community, told me a story last week about a boy he knows from an
inner-city neighborhood, a neighborhood where chaos and violence
reign. The child Bill knows was shot through his shoulder while
going to school.
Bill went to visit him in the hospital. The boy cried, and
Bill rose to get a nurse, thinking that the pain of his wound had
become unbearable. But it wasn't that; it wasn't that at all.
The boy said he was crying because he was afraid, afraid to go
home, afraid to walk the streets and afraid to go to school.
Before we do anything, we must first give these children what
they need most -- safety on the streets and sanctuary at school.
Then they can learn. ////
We must become a reading nation, to again fight for
universal literacy. We must grapple with the hard sciences. And
because education is as spiritual as it is practical, our
children must know why Americans died at Concord, at Gettysburg,
at Monte Cassino and Inchon. They must understand the generosity
7
of Andrew Carnegie, the genius of Alexander Graham Bell and the
heroism of Rosa Parks. //
To beat illiteracy, to again lead the world in science and
to know history by heart -- these are ambitious goals. To some,
they may seem impossible to achieve. But Americans are not a
people who aim for half-way. Nothing less than a full-fledged
challenge will mobilize us as a people.
As President, I am here to make such a challenge. As
governors, you can provide the leadership to match it.
You already are consulting with the state legislatures to
better our schools. Our teachers are already giving their heart
and soul to their jobs. But we have never before worked together
-- President and principal, governor and teacher -- to achieve
results in education.
This is only the third time in our 200 years as a nation
that a President has called a summit with the governors. And I
did not ask you to such an historic occasion merely to bemoan
what is wrong. We are here to work; to work together; to put the
future before the moment, and progress before partisanship, to
again make an American education the best in the world. //
We must begin with a social compact, a compact between
parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, state
legislators, governors and the Administration. Our compact is
founded not on promises, but on challenges. Let us start with
three challenges -- three radical departures from tradition.
8
I challenge you to join me, for the first time, to define
national goals and standards in education. I seek tighter
standards// higher goals/ greater aspirations. ( (Specifics to
come.))
Second, I accept your challenge to loosen the grip of
federal restrictions. //// How many great ideas, how many grand
and noble experiments, have been impaled on the narrow spike of a
federal directive? Regulation is the enemy of the bold. And
bold action is what we need most of all. //
In return for greater flexibility from Washington, I ask
that you, in turn, ease state restrictions on local bodies. And
then we will challenge superintendents and principals to meet our
higher standards. I will start this process by issuing ( (an
executive order) ) on ( (date) ) to ( (language to come) )
Third, let us judge our efforts not by our intentions, but
by our results. We need to first know where we are, no matter
how unpleasant that realization may be. We have always measured
our progress against our past performance. But to get results,
we must evaluate ourselves on a tougher grading curve -- one that
includes the other major industrial nations.
To get results, we will need a new spirit of competition
between students, between teachers and between schools -- a
report card for all.
And to get results, we will need discipline, structure and
goals. In a phrase, back to the basics.
9
Yet I do not counsel a naive nostalgia, a timid adherence to
the past. We should embrace only what works. And when hallowed
tradition proves to be hollow convention, then we must shatter
tradition. The public is ready for sweeping and far-reaching
changes, for lasting reform. We must// not/ disappoint them.
////
Less than three percent of all families live on a farm; and
yet we still educate by an agrarian school calendar largely
unchanged since the 1880s. The school year could easily be
lengthened to more than 200 days, with generous breaks
throughout. Listen to the children. They will tell you that it
is a tossup as to which is more boring: nine straight months of
school, or three straight months of vacation. Let us shatter
this tradition.
Some school subjects may require hours a day; others
minutes. Yet we teach all subjects in rigid 55 minutes formats,
as if the human attention span were a Pavlovian (PAHV-Low-Vian))
response to the ring of a school bell. School days, like school
years, are structured by custom, not by creativity. Let us
shatter this tradition.
Americans fully realize that when government bodies swell
beyond the boundaries of community interest, bureaucracy takes
control. We should scale our school districts to the communities
they serve, empowering parents and teachers alike. Large is
deadly. Let us shatter this tradition.
10
Reform requires even more of us. Too many parents have come
to see education as a service we can hand over to the school
boards, in much the same way we expect our cities to provide
electricity or water. But education is not a utility, not
something to be delegated to public policy. Education is a way
of life, and educational reform is an urgent responsibility for
every parent, every student, every community. Those who do not
advance the cause of education, hinder it. ////
Look to those who are already in the lead.
Look to Chelsea, Massachusetts, where Boston University has
been asked to assume control of a school system in trouble.
These schools will now stay open from 7:30 in the morning to 5:30
in the evening, serving as day-care centers for children whose
parents work. Eventually, Boston University will offer pre-
school classes for all children ages three to five, and "after-
school" programs involving arts and exercise.
Look to Milton Goldman and Jeffrey Reed -- teachers in Los
Angeles who use video science to entice the children of the
television age to enjoy reading.
Look to ( (name of teacher to come)) and every other teacher
who struggles to transform the dull and the rote into the magical
and the enterprising.
Some of these experiments are sure to come up short. But
for too many of our schools, experimentation is preferable to the
status quo, because the status quo could scarcely be worse. The
11
worthy and the useful will win out only if we give our schools
the freedom they deserve.
Choice is another form of freedom in education I referred to
earlier, and it is a demonstrated success. Parents should be
free to choose their schools. Principals should be free to
choose the best methods for their teachers. And schools should
be free to choose teachers with alternative certification --
those whose knowledge surpasses their credentials.
Of course, this summit will not, cannot, lead to a quick and
easy solution. We are embarking on the work of years. So let me
make a final proposal -- that we meet again in a less formal
setting to take stock of where we succeeded, and where we need to
redouble our efforts.
Every American must make the same assessment, for our
education is the work of a lifetime. With the average lifespan
lengthening to three-quarters of a century, it is absurd that we
should quit learning at age 18 or 22. Education shouldn't begin
with kindergarten, and end with a diploma and a handshake.
Education begins when we draw our first breath. And it stops
only when we breathe our last.
Our homes and our workplaces must be places of learning;
schools that continually sharpen our skills and upgrade our
competence. Seventy-five percent of the work force of the year
2000 are already on the job today. This makes vocational and
adult education essential.
12
Yet our most basic need for lifelong learning has nothing to
do with the trade balance, or the greying of the work force; it
is broader than the narrow compass of economics and government.
A scholar once wrote that great books are not lifeless
paper, but minds alive on the shelves. He observed that just as
the touch of a button on a stereo will fill the room with music,
so by taking down one of these volumes, and opening it, one can
call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space,
and hear him speak to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.
As a nation, we can again hear these voices, feel this
enchantment -- every time a parent reads a bedtime story to a
sleepy child; every time a young scholar turns to the great
books. The day must come when every young American can know the
life of the mind.
That is why we have gathered here, at Mister Jefferson's
school. He was just one man, but look at what one man can do.
Imagine what we can do if we -- fifty-one strong -- are united by
a great cause. So let us dream. Let us talk. If need be, let
us argue. But in the end, let us let us walk together on a
journey to enlightenment, in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson.
////
Thank you for your hard work and dedication. Thank you for
your partnership. Let us leave Charlottesville determined to
work with each other, to work for America. God bless you all.
#
#
#
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 2:00 PM Monday, Sept. 25
CONVOCATION, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
THURSDAY, SEPT. 28, 11:30 A.M.
SUBJECT:
(9/21/89 - DRAFT FOUR)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
BROMLEY
CARD
PINKERTON
CICCONI
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 P.M., Monday, September 25, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
80 Ed 25 d3S 68
No Commands 9/25/89
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 25, 1989
Memorandum to Chriss Winston
From:
Jim Pinkerton
P
Subject:
Univ. of Virginia Convocation Draft Speech
This is draft clearly reflects a lot of work. Possibly
because of all that able work, the draft takes a good while (not
until the bottom of page seven) to get to the central message.
We suggest at least making some reference to the draft's message
at the beginning SO that the audience will know to be on the look
out for it.
Because the central message is, of course, about education,
and delivered in an academic setting, we must be unusually
cautious in guarding against any factual errors or mistakes in
diction, grammar, spelling, and the like. Any of these normally
less important goofs will court the media equivalent of a rap on
the knuckles with a ruler. The draft is largely free of these,
but, being loosely educated ourselves, we may have missed some.
As a suggestion, we note that some of the President's
programs are argued for by the example of Jefferson and the other
Founding Fathers. For example, we could point out that none of
the Founding Fathers would be able to teach in the public
schools today (neither can the President), and that this argues
for alternative certification. In this vein, the Founders embody
the distinction between people who are considered educated
because they have degrees and certificates versus those who, like
the Founders, are considered educated because they are, in fact,
educated.
pg. 2, para. 5, line 1 The use of Jefferson as the "first
education President" is inspired and makes the President's line
seem less self-serving.
(more)
E1 d 25 dES 68
2-2-2
3,5,7
"And yet [the Founding Fathers] surpassed their
ancient teachers to become the greatest political philosophers of
all time. "
In speeches such as this which will be heard and read by
academics it makes sense to be more cautious than is usually
necessary about making universal statements. Here, for example,
we suggest "And yet they matched many of the achievements of
their ancient teachers to become among the greatest political
philosophers of all time."
4,1,4
This graf on the teaching of character makes a powerful
point that is particularly apropos after the President's drug
speeches. The last sentence of the graf is missing a word:
"Judge for yourselves [whether] we always
"
4,3,3
"We've read about children who cannot identify George
Bush, or, for that matter, George Washington. "
This line looks a little immmodest, particularly in
isolation, as it would be in a soundbite. Perhaps some other
parallelism, e.g.,
"
who cannot identify George Washington,
much less George Washington Carver. "
5,1,6
"Our nation already spends more to educate our youth
than it does to defend them
"
To drive home this point, which is directed at what will be
the main critique by the opposition of the President's program --
lack of spending, we suggest adding a line about the U.S.
spending more per pupil, and per capita, than any other country.
6,5,1
"To again fight" is a split infinitive.
7,2,1
"To again lead" is likewise a split infinitive.
8,4,1
In order to convey that intentions have at least some
importance, we suggest: " not only by our intentions, but
also by our results."
9,1,1
"Yet I do not counsel a naive nostalgia
"
This is a bit of a rhetorical straw man -- we do not imagine
that anyone in the audience will get up at this point and leave
in protest. Therefore, we suggest some rephrasing to put the
idea more positively, i.e., by talking about what the President
does counsel.
(more)
3-3-3
9,2,7
"Let us shatter this tradition" strikes a harsh,
strident tone. We suggest something that conveys the same
spiritedness but less antagonistically, e.g., "The time has come:
we must move beyond this tradition."
11,1,1
Instead of "worthy and useful," we suggest the more
euphonious "worthy and worthwhile." "
11,2,2
"Parents should be free to choose their schools."
We suggest inserting "children's" after "their."
11,5,3
"Our homes and our workplaces must be places of
learning; schools that continually sharpen our skills and
upgrade our competence."
This excellent point could perhaps be driven home by
referring to the fact that Jefferson's home was his place of work
and learning, e.g., by adding, "That's what Monticello was for
Jefferson." Incidentally, this focus on the shift toward the
home as the center of activity -- work, learning, and family --
is, we believe, a very powerful theme (over 20% of the workforce
works at home). A reference here to Monticello as Jefferson's
workplace will help should we wish to advert to this theme in
future speeches.
###
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE: 9/22/89 ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 2:00 PM Monday, Sept. 25
CONVOCATION, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA,
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
THURSDAY, SEPT. 28, 11:30 A.M.
SUBJECT:
(9/21/89 - DRAFT FOUR)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
STUDDERT
BATES
UNTERMEYER
BREEDEN
BROMLEY
CARD
PINKERTON
CICCONI
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Chriss Winston, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 P.M., Monday, September 25, with a
copy to my office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
89 SEP 25 A9 : 48
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
Davis/Martin
Sept. 21, 1989
09 SEP22 P1:51
Draft: Four
Title: Jefferson
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: CONVOCATION, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA
Thursday, Sept. 28, 11:30 a.m.
It's a delight to be back in Charlottesville. My son Marvin
and my daughter-in-law Margaret have told me to be humble while
11
1
il
I'm at U. Hall. ( (You see, they told me you only do the wave for
Ralph Sampson. )) ////
( (Acknowledge governors, events of the last few days. )) I
have been deeply impressed by the commitment, the creativity and
the knowledge that you bring to education reform.
((I've also heard eloquent appeals from many authorities on
education in the last few weeks, from state legislators to
leaders in business and education. I have listened. And I am
deeply appreciative of all that I have heard. ))
( (But I want to share with you the concerns of someone from
an under-represented group in this debate -- grade-schoolers. I
got a letter from a boy from upstate New York who wrote me to
suggest several intriguing ideas. And his letter ended with the
most unusual proposal of all: He asked me to advance the cause
of science/ / by sending his teacher// to perform some research
//// in the Bermuda Triangle. ))
Of course, this little boy does not yet appreciate it, but
it will be the tough. teachers that he will remember fondly as an
adult. The (("Johnnys)) of our schools are, in many ways, the
luckiest generation of children in history. Just last month,
2
these children observed, in the clarity of Voyager's sight, the
horizons of alien worlds, the majesty of space. Think what these
images would have meant to the ever-curious founder of this
university, who could only look through a primitive telescope at
faint patches of light, and wonder.
But our children are growing up in an age where wonder is
common place, and peace and prosperity are often taken for
granted. Our children are also the beneficiaries of a nation
that lavishes unsurpassed resources on their schooling. So in
many ways, we are close to fulfilling the Enlightenment dream of
universal education, a dream that became a reality in the
Shenandoah Valley, here at Mister Jefferson's school.
Every step we take at this University is a walk in Thomas
Jefferson's footsteps. When Jefferson first charted the ground
on which we gather today, there was just a field of grass, and a
horizon limited only by the blue mountains beyond. But Jefferson
surveyed a horizon no one else could see. He saw the graceful
dome of the Rotunda, and the elegance of the Lawn and its
pavilions. He saw meeting rooms and lectures halls -- and hoped
they would be teeming with professors and students yet unborn.
Jefferson fashioned his ethereal vision into solid reality,
brick by brick, book by book. And it is his University -- and
his dream -- that inspires us today to follow in his footsteps.
Thomas Jefferson was our first education president. He was
a relentless advocate for universal public education. He did so
because he had a "fundamental conviction that on the 'good sense
3
of' an educated citizenry, we could build and defend a country of
liberty and justice."
I borrowed these last few words from a friend of mine. This
assessment of Thomas Jefferson came from another Renaissance man,
a man of our time -- the late A. Bartlett Giamatti. //
Like Jefferson, Bart's life was a metaphor for civility and
public service. And it is this commitment to public service that
we must carry on, not just as an education President, but as
education governors, as an education society.
We have come close to this Jeffersonian ideal of an
education society. And yet, after two centuries of progress, we
are backsliding. While millions of Americans read for pleasure,
millions of others don't read at all. While millions of
Americans graduate from college, millions of others never finish
high school. Jefferson said that no nation could long be both
ignorant and free. The state of our educational system is
nothing less than the future of our democracy.
So I come to Jefferson's university to make a frank
observation: This nation is moving away from the aspirations of
its founders. The Founding Fathers were as fluent in geography
and science as they were in Latin and French. They began as rapt
students of antiquity, the statecraft of Marcus Aurelius, the
NON
philosophy of thinkers from Socrates to Cicero.
And yet they
SEQUITUR
surpassed their ancient teachers to become the greatest political
philosophers of all time.
?? Through dilisence
and continued study] ??
4
Our founders lived at a time when the purpose of education
was to develop the character of young people. Schools taught
literature, physics and geometry. But they also taught honesty,
discipline and service to country. Judge for yourself we always
impart these lessons today.
Jefferson wanted to redeem "that mass of talents which lies
buried in poverty." And for most of our history, education has
been the great champion of the poor, leveling all distinctions of
class, race and background. A century ago, the poorest parents
in the bleakest slum knew their children could go anywhere, could
be anything, if they could get an American education. Again,
judge for yourself if the same could be said today.
We've heard of high school graduates who believe New Mexico
is in Latin America. We've seen schools that are overrun by
crack and coke. We've read about children who cannot identify
George Bush, or, for that matter, George Washington. We are all,
by now, fully aware of the extent to which our nation is at risk.
This is not a time for assessment. This is a time for action. / /
I have built my proposals for federal action in education
around four principles. First: Excellence in education should be
recognized and rewarded. Second: Federal funding should be
targeted to those who need it most. Third: Choice and
flexibility -- we should give more freedom to educators, as well
as to parents and students. And fourth and finally: Greater
accountability for all -- students, teachers, principals, and,
yes, ourselves -- elected officials.
5
Some say there is another answer -- to spend more money. I
do not wholly agree, although I have asked Congress to provide
nearly a half a billion dollars for ten worthy programs.
Your states may also choose to spend more. But to those who say
that money alone is the answer, I say that there is no one
answer. Our nation already spends more to educate our youth than
it does to defend them -- this year, 353 billion dollars in all.
Over the decades, while the rate of spending has escalated, high
school graduation rates and SAT scores have tumbled. So hard
experience teaches that we are simply not getting our money's
worth in education. // Our focus must no longer be on resources.
It must be on results.
implies elements and tasks
could we
say(?)
This is my
program.
Some
support
it.
Some
do
not.
But
11m
I
am sure we all agree this is no time to work at cross purposes. my VisioN"
(then some
This is a time for us to coordinate our efforts to save our
will support
schools. //
my approach,
Education reform is not a distant goal to be passively
some not.) may
pursued. It is urgent. Imperative. Vital. In the past, one
could rise to the middle class without a high school education or
a special skill. You know as well as I that in the service
economy of the future, this will no longer be possible. By the
year 2000, between five million and fifteen million low-skill
jobs will be replaced by positions that require vastly greater
knowledge and ability. If we do not find a way to reach that
quarter of young Americans who never attain a high school degree,
6
then the underclass will be truly permanent. And America will no
longer be synonymous with opportunity.
Education is our most enduring legacy, vital to everything
we are and can become. And come the next century -- just ten
years away -- what will we be? Will our descendants forget all
that we were and forsake all they could achieve? Will Americans
be the children, or the orphans, of the Enlightenment?
Bill Milliken, a friend of mine in the educational
community, told me a story last week about a boy he knows from an
inner-city neighborhood, a neighborhood where chaos and violence
reign. The child Bill knows was shot through his shoulder while
going to school.
Bill went to visit him in the hospital. The boy cried, and
Bill rose to get a nurse, thinking that the pain of his wound had
become unbearable. But it wasn't that; it wasn't that at all.
The boy said he was crying because he was afraid afraid to go
home, afraid to walk the streets and afraid to go to school.
Before we do anything, we must first give these children what
they need most -- safety on the streets and sanctuary at school.
Then they can learn. ////
We must become a reading nation, to again fight for
universal literacy. We must grapple with the hard sciences. And
because education is as spiritual as it is practical, our
children must know why Americans died at Concord, at Gettysburg,
at Monte Cassino and Inchon. They must understand the generosity
7
of Andrew Carnegie, the genius of Alexander Graham Bell and the
heroism of Rosa Parks. //
To beat illiteracy, to again lead the world in science and
(negain
to know history by heart -- these are ambitious goals. To some,
they may seem impossible to achieve. But Americans are not a
people who aim for half-way. Nothing less than a full-fledged
challenge will mobilize us as a people.
As President, I am here to make such a challenge. As
governors, you can provide the leadership to match it.
You already are consulting with the state legislatures to
better our schools. Our teachers are already giving their heart
and soul to their jobs. But we have never before worked together
-- President and principal, governor and teacher -- to achieve
results in education.
This is only the third time in our 200 years as a nation
that a President has called a summit with the governors. And I
did not ask you to such an historic occasion merely to bemoan
split
infinitive
what is wrong. We are here to work; to work together; to put the
future before the moment, and progress before partisanship, to
make an American education the best in the world. //
once again
We must begin with a social compact, a compact between
parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, state
legislators, governors and the Administration Our compact is
founded not on promises, but on challenges. Let us start with
three challenges three radical departures from tradition.
8
I challenge you to join me, for the first time, to define
national goals and standards in education. I seek tighter
standards/ higher goals/ / greater aspirations. ( (Specifics to
come.))
Second, I accept your challenge to loosen the grip of
federal restrictions. //// How many great ideas, how many grand
and noble experiments, have been impaled on the narrow spike of a
federal directive? Regulation is the enemy of the bold. And
bold action is what we need most of all. //
In return for greater flexibility from Washington, I ask
that you, in turn, ease state restrictions on local bodies. And
then we will challenge superintendents and principals to meet our
higher standards. I will start this process by issuing ( (an
executive order)) on ( (date) ) to ( (language to come) )
Third, let us judge our efforts not by our intentions, but
by our results. We need to first know where we are, no matter
how unpleasant that realization may be. We have always measured
our progress against our past performance. But to get results,
we must evaluate ourselves on a tougher grading curve -- one that
includes the other major industrial nations.
To get results, we will need a new spirit of competition
between students, between teachers and between schools -- a
report card for all.
And to get results, we will need discipline, structure and
goals. In a phrase, back to the basics.
9
Yet I do not counsel a naive nostalgia, a timid adherence to
the past. We should embrace only what works. And when hallowed
tradition proves to be hollow convention, then we must shatter
tradition. The public is ready for sweeping and far-reaching
changes, for lasting reform. We must// not// disappoint them.
////
Less than three percent of all families live on a farm; and
yet we still educate by an agrarian school calendar largely
unchanged since the 1880s. The school year could easily be
lengthened to more than 200 days, with generous breaks
throughout. Listen to the children. They will tell you that it
is a tossup as to which is more boring: nine straight months of
school, or three straight months of vacation. Let us shatter
this tradition.
Some school subjects may require hours a day; others
minutes. Yet we teach all subjects in rigid 55 minutes formats,
as if the human attention span were a Pavlovian ( (PAHV-Low-Vian) )
response to the ring of a school bell. School days, like school
years, are structured by custom, not by creativity. Let us
shatter this tradition.
Americans fully realize that when government bodies swell
beyond the boundaries of community interest, bureaucracy takes
control. We should scale our school districts to the communities
they serve, empowering parents and teachers alike. Large is
deadly. Let us shatter this tradition.
10
Reform requires even more of us. Too many parents have come
to see education as a service we can hand over to the school
boards, in much the same way we expect our cities to provide
electricity or water. But education is not a utility, not
something to be delegated to public policy. Education is a way
of life, and educational reform is an urgent responsibility for
every parent, every student, every community. Those who do not
advance the cause of education, hinder it. ////
Look to those who are already in the lead.
Look to Chelsea, Massachusetts, where Boston University has
been asked to assume control of a school system in trouble.
These schools will now stay open from 7:30 in the morning to 5:30
in the evening, serving as day-care centers for children whose
parents work. Eventually, Boston University will offer pre-
school classes for all children ages three to five, and "after-
school" programs involving arts and exercise.
Look to Milton Goldman and Jeffrey Reed -- teachers in Los
Angeles who use video science to entice the children of the
television age to enjoy reading.
Look to ( (name of teacher to come) ) and every other teacher
who struggles to transform the dull and the rote into the magical
and the enterprising.
obsaires
Some of these experiments are sure to come up short. But
a situation has evolved where,
for too many of our schools, experimentation is preferable to the
meaning
status quo because the status quo could scarcely be worse. The
11
worthy and the useful will win out only if we give our schools
the freedom they deserve.
Choice is another form of freedom in education I referred to
earlier, and it is a demonstrated success. Parents should be
free to choose their schools. Principals should be free to
choose the best methods for their teachers. And schools should
be free to choose teachers with alternative certification --
those whose knowledge surpasses their credentials.
Of course, this summit will not, cannot, lead to a quick and
easy solution. We are embarking on the work of years. So let me
make a final proposal -- that we meet again in a less formal
setting to take stock of where we succeeded, and where we need to
redouble our efforts.
Every American must make the same assessment, for our
education is the work of a lifetime. With the average lifespan
lengthening to three-quarters of a century, it is absurd that we
should quit learning at age 18 or 22. Education shouldn't begin
with kindergarten, and end with a diploma and a handshake.
Education begins when we draw our first breath. And it stops
only when we breathe our last.
Our homes and our workplaces must be places of learning;
schools that continually sharpen our skills and upgrade our
competence. Seventy-five percent of the work force of the year
2000 are already on the job today. This makes vocational and
adult education essential.
12
Yet our most basic need for lifelong learning has nothing to
do with the trade balance, or the greying of the work force; it
is broader than the narrow compass of economics and government.
A scholar once wrote that great books are not lifeless
paper, but minds alive on the shelves. He observed that just as
the touch of a button on a stereo will fill the room with music,
so by taking down one of these volumes, and opening it, one can
call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space,
and hear him speak to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.
As a nation, we can again hear these voices, feel this
enchantment -- every time a parent reads a bedtime story to a
sleepy child; every time a young scholar turns to the great
books. The day must come when every young American can know the
life of the mind.
That is why we have gathered here, at Mister Jefferson's
school. He was just one man, but look at what one man can do.
Imagine what we can do if we -- fifty-one strong -- are united by
a great cause. So let us dream. Let us talk. If need be, let
us argue. But in the end, let us let us walk together on a
journey to enlightenment, in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson.
////
Thank you for your hard work and dedication. Thank you for
your partnership. Let us leave Charlottesville determined to
work with each other, to work for America. God bless you all.
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 25, 1989
MEMORANDUM FOR CHRISS WINSTON
FROM:
DEB ANDERSON Web
SUBJECT:
COMMENTS
Comments on Opening Address Education Summit, Old Cabell Hall:
p.3, line 5: can some mention be made here of other levels of
elected officials, i.e., legislators, school boards, mayors?,
--they see themselves as experts, as well.
Comments on Convocation, U. of VA:
p.4, line 4: last sentence doesn't read correctly.
p.12, line 17: our last count of Governors is 53--this is
subject to change, and I don't think we'll really know how many
will show until the summit begins.
CC: Jim Cicconi
1' 0 : 21d 25 PEP 68
THE WHITE HOUSE
CW/PUI
WASHINGTON
CABINET PARTICIPATION IN PROMOTION OF PROPOSALS
EMINATING FROM PRESIDENTIAL EDUCATION
SUMMIT WITH GOVERNORS
SATELLITE INTERVIEWS
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. EDT
Thursday, Sept. 28
WASHINGTON
Education Secretary
Lauro Cavazos
NEWSFEED NETWORK (Time 30 min.)
1111 18th St. NW 331-9240
WPIX - New York (1)
KCOP Los Angeles (2)
WLS - Chicago (3)
KYW - Philadelphia (4)
WBZ - Boston (6)
WDIV - Detroit (7)
CONUS COMMUNICATIONS (Time 30 min.)
1825 K St. NW 955-7370
KSTP - Minneapolis (13)
WTVJ - Miami (14)
KOMO Seattle (15)
WTAE Pittsburgh (16)
KCNC Denver (19)
KTVK - Phoenix (20)
3-4 gavs- Kean Perpick Goodstend
Dake
askcraft
() =TV market ranking
PJL 9/22/89
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
CABINET PARTICIPATION IN PROMOTION OF PROPOSALS
EMINATING FROM PRESIDENTIAL EDUCATION
SUMMIT WITH GOVERNORS
SATELLITE INTERVIEWS
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. EDT
Thursday, Sept. 28
WASHINGTON
White House Chief of Staff
John Sununu
COX BRAODCASTING CORPORTATION (Time 30 min.)
400 N. CAPITOL ST., #189
737-0277
KTVU - San Francisco (5)
WKPD - Detroit (7)
WSB - Atlanta (12)
WPXI - Pittsburgh (16)
WFTV - Orlando (25)
WSCO - Charlotte (31)
THE GILLETT GROUP
(Time 30 min.)
400 N. CAPITOL ST., #165
783-5912
WSBK Boston (6)
WJW - Cleveland (11)
WTVT - - Tampa (16)
WMAR - Baltimore (22)
WKST - San Diego (24)
WITI - Milwaukee (28)
() =TV market ranking
PJL 9/22/89
THE WHITE HOUSE
(Charlottesville, Virginia)
For Immediate Release
September 27, 1989
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN WELCOMING ADDRESS TO GOVERNORS
Old Cabell Hall
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
3:15 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for that warm welcome.
Secretary Cavazos, thank you, sir, and to the other members of the
Cabinet. And Governor Branstad, and Governors Clinton and Campbell,
all the governors. President O'Neil especially, who is moving out of
his house so Barbara and I can stay there -- beyond the call of duty.
Members of the faculty and friends, thank you. And let me say, as I
guess the host of this, welcome -- welcome to Mr. Jefferson's
university -- the alma mater of President Woodrow Wilson. To
Virginia's gracious Governor, Jerry Baliles, my thanks to you, sir.
Our Senators -- I don't know if they made it -- Chuck Robb and John
Warner, but I know they plan to come. And, of course, Congressman
for this district, French Slaughter.
I call it Mr. Jefferson's university, as nearly everyone
else does in this marvelous city of Charlottesville. In fact,
President Taft said once that they still spoke about Mr. Jefferson as
though he were in the next room -- his spirit more real than the
painting of Plato and Aristotle behind me, or the statue of Homer
outside on the lawn.
Although his ideas on individual freedom, humanism and
the inalienable rights of man stand alone in the history of this
Republic, Mr. Jefferson had one overriding vision that he did not see
realized in his lifetime, but one which has over the past 200 years
been fulfilled -- a vision of strong public education, a public
education system in this country second to none. It's a system that
has brought Americans from all walks of life together; enabled all
citizens to build better lives for themselves; a system that has
given us Neil Armstrong, and Martin Luther King, Jonas Salk, Sandra
Day O'Connor -- a system unparalled in the world.
But today millions of Americans cannot read. Some never
even make it to graduation, dropping out of school and society as
well. Drugs have invaded our classrooms, violence has entered our
school yards, and clearly the enlightened America dreamed of by
Thomas Jefferson still eludes us.
And so, the Governors have accepted my invitation to come
together for open and candid discussions about the future of American
education. And I am grateful to each and every one of you, and I
appreciate the depth of commitment shown by everyone assembled here
today.
This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. And it's
not administration versus the Governors. It's an American issue.
And everyone in this room is committed or you wouldn't be here --
to educational excellence. And we all know too much is at stake to
let partisanship get in the way of progress.
This call was sounded in 1983, in the previous
administration, in the Reagan administration, when warned in its
MORE
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historic education report that we are indeed a nation at risk. And
that report awakened Americans to the situation in our schools, and
then those alarm bells began to ring. And everyone now knows what
the problems are. And no one came here to point fingers. But for
the good of our children's education, for the good of the country, if
you will, we must decide on a course of action. The time for study
is over.
There are real problems right now in our educational
system, but there is no one federal solution. The federal government
of course has a very important role to play, which is why I'm here
and why so many members of our Cabinet are here. And we're going to
work with you to help find answers.
But I firmly believe that the key will be found at the
state and local levels. You are the ones, as Governors, who are out
there on the firing line. And you see what goes on in the classrooms
and in the local school boards and in your state policymaking
sessions. Truly, the states are the laboratories of reform in this
country and you are the experts.
But we've got to work together -- the states, Governors,
mayors, state legislators and the federal government. We must work
together over the next two days. But more importantly, over the next
several years.
We're going to talk about many issues -- most
importantly, choice and competitiveness and teaching quality and
improving the learning environment. Accountability, flexibility,
tougher standards, a results-oriented system -- all of these have got
to be out there on the table.
And what I'm seeking at this summit is not just dialogue,
but a new sense of direction. We've got to challenge the education
system- if we're to meet the challenge of educational excellence.
It's time to stop debating over commissions and studies and set
priorities, and it's time to get on with it.
Shortly we're going to leave this hall and walk down the
lawn to the Rotunda for the first of our working group meetings. On
the way we will pass -- walk past Pavillion Seven, known as the
Colonnade Club. The cornerstone of that building was laid by three
great Americans -- Presidents Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. And as
you walk past that Colonnade Club, let us think of these three men
and what they envisioned for the Republic. Think of the schools the
founders sought to establish to develop the character of students
with values like honesty and discipline and public service. And let
us work together these next two days in a spirit of total frankness,
total honesty. And let's not be afraid, as Mr. Jefferson said, to
follow truth, wherever it may lead.
Thank you all very much for coming. And Governors, I
look forward to working with you over the next couple of days here.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END
3:20 P.M. EDT