White House Fact Sheet April 18, 1991 AMERICA 2000: THE PRESIDENT'S EDUCATION STRATEGY The president today outlined his strategy to move the nation toward achieving the national education goals and educational excellence for all Americans. The president believes we must restructure and revitalize America's education system by the year 2000. Emphasizing that this effort is a national challenge, the president asked all Americans to take part in "the crusade that counts mostÄthe crusade to prepare our children and ourselves for the exciting future that looms ahead." AMERICA 2000 builds on four related themes: o Creating better and more accountable schools for today's students; o Creating a New Generation of American Schools for tomorrow's students; o Transforming America into a Nation of Students; and o Making our communities places where learning will happen. I. CREATING BETTER AND MORE ACCOUNTABLE SCHOOLS FOR TODAY'S STUDENTS The president called on all Americans to help create better and more accountable schools based on world class standards and the principle of accountability. He encouraged all elements of our communitiesÄfamilies, businesses, unions, places of worship, neighborhood organizations and other voluntary associationsÄto work together with our schools to help the nation achieve educational excellence. A. World Class Standards in Five Core Subjects The president believes the time has come to establish world class standards for what our children should know and be able to do in five core subjects: English, mathematics, science, history, and geography. o Through the National Education Goals Panel, and working with interested parties throughout the nation, the president and the governors will develop a timetable for establishing national standards in these five subjects, and in September 1991, and each year thereafter, the panel will report to the nation on progress toward the national education goals. o The standards are intended to lift the entire education system and improve the learning achievement of all students. The president and the governors oppose a national curriculum or federalizing our education system. B. A System of Voluntary National Examinations Through the efforts of the National Education Goals Panel, a system of voluntary examinations will be developed and made available for all fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students in the five core subjects. o These American Achievement Tests will challenge all students to strive to meet the world class standards and ensure that, when they leave school, students are prepared for further study and the work force. The tests will measure higher order skills (i.e., they will not be strictly multiple choice tests). o The president, working with the nation's governors, will seek congressional authorization for state-level National Assessment of Educational Progress assessments and for optional use of these assessments at district and school levels. o Students who distinguish themselves on the American Achievement Tests will receive a Presidential Citation for Educational Excellence in recognition of their outstanding achievement. o The president will seek authorization for Presidential Achievement Scholarships to reward academic excellence among low-income students pursuing postsecondary education opportunities. These financial awards will be based on superior high school and college performance. C. Schools as the Site of Reform The administration will help strengthen the capacity of elementary and secondary schools to improve results and to innovate by increasing flexibility in decisionmaking at the state, district, and school levels and encouraging report cards on performance. o In addition to an annual National Report Card, the president will encourage schools, school districts, and states to issue regular report cards on their education performance. These report cards will measure results and progress toward achieving the national education goals. o As part of his AMERICA 2000 Excellence in Education Act of 1991, the president will again seek legislation that will allow greater flexibility in the use of federal resources for education in exchange for enhanced accountability for results. o To stimulate reform in mathematics and science education, the AMERICA 2000 Excellence in Education Act of 1991 will include $40 million for new grants to school districts that show significant gains in student achievement. Awards will be used for continued improvements in these vital subjects. o The AMERICA 2000 Excellence in Education Act of 1991 also will seek funds for a Merit Schools Program for states to award individual schools that demonstrate significant progress toward the national education goals. D. Providing and Promoting School Choice The president believes that educational choice for parents and students is critical to improving our schools. o The president will promote state and local choice programs as part of his AMERICA 2000 Excellence in Education Act of 1991. Ä A $200 million Education Certificate Program Support Fund will provide incentive grants to local school districts with qualified education certificate programs that enhance parental choice. Ä National school choice demonstration projects will be supported through a $30 million initiative. o The administration also will seek ways to ensure that federal education programs are more supportive of choice. E. Teachers and Principals America's teachers and principals are on the front lines of transforming our schools. As part of his AMERICA 2000 Excellence in Education Act of 1991, the president will propose several initiatives to promote outstanding leadership in our schools. o Presidential Awards for Excellence in Education will recognize and reward outstanding teachers across America. o The president will encourage states and communities to provide alternative routes of certification through one-time grants to states to support implementation of alternative certification. o In order to improve the training of school principals and other school leaders, the president will propose establishing Governors' Academies in every state with federal seed money to enhance principal training through instructional and mentoring programs. o The president will seek to establish Governors' Academies for America's teachers with federal seed money to offer advanced instruction focusing on the five core academic disciplines. The president also encouraged states to consider differential pay and financial and other awards for those who excel in teaching, teach core subjects, teach in challenging settings, and serve as mentors for new teachers. II. CREATING A NEW GENERATION OF AMERICAN SCHOOLS FOR TOMORROW'S STUDENTS The president today challenged the best minds in America to designÄand help communities createÄthe best schools in the world. A. Research and Development A series of Research and Development Teams, funded by contributions from the business community, will help design a New Generation of American Schools. o America's business leaders will establish and mobilize private resources for the New American Schools Development Corporation, a new nonprofit organization that will award contracts in 1992 to between three and seven R & D Teams. These Teams may consist of corporations, universities, think tanks, school innovators and others. The Teams' products will be available to the American people. o The mission of these Teams is to help communities create schools that will reach the national education goals, including world class standards in the five core subjects for all students, as monitored by the American Achievement Tests and similar measures. o The president will ask his Education Policy Advisory Committee, as well as the Department of Education, to examine the work of these R & D Teams and to report on their progress. B. New American Schools The president will ask Congress to provide $550 million in one-time start-up funds to create at least 535 New American Schools that "break the mold" of existing school designs. o These funds will provide up to $1 million for each New American School to underwrite special staff training, instructional materials, or other support the school needs. The goal is to have at least one New American School operating in each congressional district by September 1996. o Once the schools are launched, the operating costs of the New American Schools will be no more than those of conventional schools. o The president also will ask Congress for start-up funds to help design state-of-the-art technology appropriate for New American Schools. o A New American School does not necessarily mean new bricks and mortar. Nor does a New American School have to rely on technology; the quality of learning is what matters. C. AMERICA 2000 Communities The president called on every community in the country to do four things: o Adopt the six national education goals; o Establish a community-wide strategy for achieving the goals; o Develop a report card for measuring its progress; and o Demonstrate its readiness to create and support a New American School. Communities that accept this challenge will be designated, by the governors of their states, as "AMERICA 2000 Communities." o Governors, in conjunction with the secretary of Education, will review community-developed plans with the assistance of a distinguished advisory panel and will determine which AMERICA 2000 Communities in each state will receive federal financial support in starting New American Schools. o The governors and the secretary will ensure that many such schools serve communities with high concentrations of children at risk. D. Leadership at All Levels Transforming American education and creating a New Generation of American Schools will require the commitment of America's leaders at all levels. o The president welcomes the commitment by American business to contribute $150-$200 million to support the R & D effort. o The president asked the nation's governors to lead the New American Schools effort in their states. o The president challenged state legislatures to support the creation and operation of New American Schools; embrace the world class standards and adopt the American Achievement Tests; and work toward school, district, and state-level report cards. o The president encouraged civic leaders to help organize community plans all across the country to seek designation as an AMERICA 2000 Community and to help plan and operate New American Schools. Business can encourage local schools to use the World Class Standards and American Achievement Tests and encourage schools to issue report cards on their performance. o The president called on educators to accept new roles and to take risks. Teachers, principals, and other educators are asked to work to develop a consensus on the World Class Standards and to determine what it would take to create a New American School in each community. E. Families and Children Devoted to Learning The president called on parents to urge use of World Class Standards, American Achievement Tests, and report cards by local schools. Parents must play a key role in creating New American Schools in their own communities and must work with children in the home to improve children's performance in school. III. TRANSFORMING AMERICA INTO "A NATION OF STUDENTS" The president believes that learning is a lifelong challenge. Approximately 85 percent of America's workers for the year 2000 are already in the work force. Improving schools for today's and tomorrow's students is not sufficient to ensure a competitive America in the year 2000. The president called on Americans to move from "A Nation at Risk" to "A Nation of Students" by continuing to enhance the knowledge and skills of all Americans. A. Strengthening the Nation's Education Effort for Yesterday's Students, Today's Workers To advance the goal of improving literacy for all Americans: o The president will push for greater accountability and choice in the Adult Education Act and will advance these twin principles in new adult literacy activities proposed under the new AMERICA 2000 Excellence in Education Act of 1991. o The Department of Education will provide regular, timely, and reliable information by expanding the National Adult Literacy Survey and collecting information about literacy efforts on a regular basis. B. Establishing Standards for Job Skills and Knowledge The president urged business and labor cooperatively to developÄand then to useÄworld class standards and core proficiencies for each industry. Federal resources will be sought to provide start-up assistance for this effort. C. Creating Business and Community Skill Clinics Today's workers will be assisted through Skill ClinicsÄone-stop service centers located in businesses and communities across America where adults can get job skill diagnosis and referral services. o The administration will urge businesses to make Skill Clinics available to their employees and encourage AMERICA 2000 Communities to establish community Skill Clinics. o Federal departments and agencies will be encouraged to establish such Skill Clinics and, working with the Office of Personnel Management, will be encouraged to undertake activities to upgrade their employees' skills. D. Enhancing Job Training Opportunities The Domestic Policy Council Job Training 2000 Working Group will review current federal job training efforts and identify successful ways of motivating and enabling individuals to receive the comprehensive services, education, and skills necessary to achieve economic independence. E. Mobilizing A "Nation of Students" The president will work to transform "A Nation at Risk" into "A Nation of Students." o The president called on the secretaries of Education and Labor to convene business and labor leaders; education and training experts; and federal, state, and local government officials at a national conference on the education of adult Americans to launch a national effort to transform adult America into a "Nation of Students." IV. MAKING OUR COMMUNITIES PLACES WHERE LEARNING WILL HAPPEN The president called on communities to adopt the six national education goals as their own, set a community strategy to meet them, produce a report card to measure results, and agree to create and support a New American School. The president believes that it is essential to reaffirm such enduring values as personal responsibility, individual action, and other core principles that must underpin life in a democratic society. The aim of the AMERICA 2000 Community campaign is to make our communities places where learning will happen. A. Greater Parental Involvement The president urged parents to become more involved in their children's education and in the work of the New American Schools. o Parents and teachers should encourage children to study more, learn more, and strive to meet higher academic standards. o The president encouraged parents to read aloud daily to their children, especially their younger children. B. Enhanced Program Effectiveness for Children and Communities The president is committed to making government work better to improve programs for America's children and communities. o Working through the Domestic Policy Council Economic Empowerment Task Force and with the nation's governors and other officials, the administration will undertake better coordination of existing federal programs with corresponding state and local activities. o As part of this effort, existing program eligibility requirements will be reviewed in order to streamline them and reduce federal red tape. Wherever possible, states will be afforded maximum flexibility to design and implement integrated state, local, and federal programming. University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia September 27-28, 1989 THE PRESIDENT'S EDUCATION SUMMIT WITH GOVERNORS Joint Statement The president and the nation's governors agree that a better educated citizenry is the key to the continued growth and prosperity of the United States. Education has historically been, and should remain, a state responsibility and a local function, which works best when there is also strong parental involvement in the schools. And, as a nation we must have an educated work force, second to none, in order to succeed in an increasingly competitive world economy. Education has always been important, but never this important because the stakes have changed: Our competitors for opportunity are also working to educate their people. As they continue to improve, they make the future a moving target. We believe that the time has come, for the first time in U.S. history, to establish clear national performance goals, goals that will make us internationally competitive. The president and the nation's governors have agreed at this summit to: o establish a process for setting national education goals; o seek greater flexibility and enhanced accountability in the use of federal resources to meet the goals, through both regulatory and legislative changes; o undertake a major state-by-state effort to restructure our education system; and o report annually on progress in achieving our goals. This agreement represents the first step in a long-term commitment to reorient the education system and to marshal widespread support for the needed reforms. National Education Goals The first step in restructuring our education system is to build a broad-based consensus around a defined set of national education goals. The National Governors' Association Task Force on Education will work with the president's designees to recommend goals to the president and the nation's governors. The process to develop the goals will involve teachers, parents, local administrators, school board members, elected officials, business and labor communities, and the public at large. The overriding objective is to develop an ambitious, realistic set of performance goals that reflect the views of those with a stake in the performance of our education system. To succeed we need a common understanding and a common mission. National goals will allow us to plan effectively, to set priorities, and to establish clear lines of accountability and authority. These goals will lead to the development of detailed strategies that will allow us to meet these objectives. The process for establishing these goals should be completed and the goals announced in early 1990. By performance we mean goals that will, if achieved, guarantee that we are internationally competitive, such as goals related to: o the readiness of children to start school; o the performance of students on international achievement tests, especially in math and science; o the reduction of the dropout rate and the improvement of academic performance, especially among at-risk students; o the functional literacy of adult Americans; o the level of training necessary to guarantee a competitive work force; o the supply of qualified teachers and up-to-date technology; and o the establishment of safe, disciplined, and drug-free schools. The Federal-State Partnership Flexibility and Accountability The president and the governors are committed to achieving the maximum return possible from our investments in the nation's education system. We define maximum return as follows: significant and sustained educational improvement for all children. Nothing less will meet the nation's needs for a strong, competitive work force; nothing less will meet our children's needs for successful citizenship and economic opportunity. Federal funds, which represent only a small part of total education spending, are directed particularly toward services for young people most at risk. Federal laws and regulations control where and for whom states and localities spend this money. State and local laws and regulations control what is taught, and how, for all students. At present, neither federal nor state and local laws and regulations focus sufficiently on results, or on real educational improvement for all children. Federal and state executives need authority to waive statutory and regulatory provisions in return for greater accountability for results. The president and the governors have agreed: o to examine federal regulations under current law and to move in the direction of greater flexibility; o to take parallel steps in each state with respect to state laws and administrative rules; and o to submit legislation to Congress early next year that would provide state and local recipients greater flexibility in the use of federal funds, in return for firm commitments to improved levels of education and skill training. The president and the governors have agreed to establish a working group of governors and the president's designees to begin work immediately to accomplish these tasks. We know that other voices need to be heard in this discussionÄvoices of educators, parents, and those whose primary interest is the protection of the disadvantaged, minorities, and the handicapped. We need to work with the Congress. The processes we will set up immediately following this conference will involve all parties. The urgent need for flexibility in using federal funds can best be illustrated by a few examples. First, the federal Vocational Education Act, which mandates specific set-asides that often result in individual awards that are too small to be meaningful and that prohibit the money from being spent to achieve its purpose. One state reported being required to divide $300,000 in aid among far too many categories and set-asides. Second, similarly, the Chapter 1 program requires that equipment purchased to provide remedial education services cannot be used for non-Chapter 1 institutions in areas such as adult education. Several states report that large numbers of computers purchased by federal funds are idle at night, while adult education classes that need them either do without or use scarce tax dollars to buy other equipment. Third, the requirements that children who benefit from federal funds for compensatory and special education be taught separately often undermine their achievement. Waivers that permit these students to return to regular classes and receive extra help have produced large increases in their test scores. This option should be available for all school districts. These commitments are historic steps toward ensuring that young people with the greatest needs receive the best our schools and training programs can give them, and that all children reach their highest educational potential. In a phrase, we want to swap red tape for results. The Federal Government's Financial Role State and local governments provide more than 90 percent of education funding. They should continue to bear that lion's share of the load. The federal financial role is limited and has even declined, but it is still important. That role isÄ o to promote national education equity by helping our poor children get off to a good start in school, giving disadvantaged and handicapped children extra help to assist them in their school years, ensuring accessibility to a college education, and preparing the work force for jobs; o to provide research and development for programs that work, good information on the real performance of students, schools, and states, and assistance in replicating successful state and local initiatives all across the United States. We understand the limits imposed on new spending by the federal deficit and the budget process. However, we urge that priority for any further funding increases be given to prepare young children to succeed in school. This is consistent with the president's recommendation for an increase in the number of children served by Head Start in this year's budget. If we are ever to develop a system that ensures that our children are healthy and succeed in school, the federal government will have to play a leading role. Further, we urge that the Congress not impose new federal mandates that are unrelated to children but that require states to spend state tax money that could otherwise go to education. Commitment to Restructuring Virtually every state has substantially increased its investment in education, increased standards, and improved learning. Real gains have occurred. However, we still have a long way to go. We must make dramatic improvements in our education system. This cannot be done without a genuine, national, bipartisan commitment to excellence and without a willingness to dramatically alter our system of education. The president and the nation's governors agree that significant steps must be taken to restructure education in all states. We share the view that simply more of the same will not achieve the results we need. We must find ways to deploy the resources we commit to education more effectively. A similar process has been going on in the American manufacturing industry over the last decade with astonishing results: an increase in productivity of nearly 4 percent a year. There are many promising new ideas and strategies for restructuring education. These include greater choice for parents and students, greater authority and accountability for teachers and principals, alternative certification programs for teachers, and programs that systematically reward excellence and performance. Most successful restructuring efforts seem to have certain common characteristics: o a system of accountability that focuses on results, rather than on compliance with rules and regulations; o decentralization of authority and decision-making responsibility to the school site, so that educators are empowered to determine the means for achieving the goals and to be held accountable for accomplishing them; o a rigorous program of instruction designed to ensure that every child can acquire the knowledge and skills required in an economy in which our citizens must be able to think for a living; o an education system that develops first-rate teachers and creates a professional environment that provides real rewards for success with students, real consequences for failure, and the tools and flexibility required to get the job done; and o active, sustained parental and business community involvement. Restructuring efforts are now under way in many states. The nation's governors are committed to a major restructuring effort in every state. The governors will give this task high priority and will report on their progress in one year. Assuring Accountability As elected chief executives, we expect to be held accountable for progress in meeting the new national goals, and we expect to hold others accountable as well. When goals are set and strategies for achieving them are adopted, we must establish clear measures of performance and then issue annual report cards on the progress of students, schools, the states, and the federal government. Over the last few days we have humbly walked in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson. We have started down a promising path. We have entered into a compactÄa Jeffersonian compact to enlighten our children and the children of generations to come. The time for rhetoric is past; the time for performance is now.