Main text by President George Bush and his team of speechwriters
Delivered April 6, 2004
annotated by Jeffrey Monty on April 7, 2004
"If you don't say the 'under God' part, you'll be the only children left behind."
NOTE: Today, I have chosen to annotate President Bush’s April 6, 2004 remarks at a Community College in Arkansas. Oddly, as the U.S. suffers one of its worst days to date in its Iraq occupation, the President is in a particularly joking and light-hearted mood.
[TRANSCRIPT MADE AVAILABLE BY WHITEHOUSE.GOV]
South Arkansas Community College
El Dorado, Arkansas
11:05 A.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Thank you,
skinny. (Laughter.) Gosh, thanks for the warm welcome. It's great to be
here. Huckabee told me I'm the first sitting President ever to come to El
Dorado, Arkansas. (Applause.) And I'm glad I came. I'm really glad I came.
Governor, thank you, and Janet, for meeting me at the airport. It's great to
see you again. Thank you all for being here.
I really want to thank Kathy and her staff for putting up with us. It
turns out it's not easy to welcome a President. You've got to have a stage,
you've got to have this, you've got to have that. The entourages are huge.
We're really glad to be here, because this is going to be an economics lesson
coupled with a discussion about how to make sure everybody is educated for the
jobs for the 21st century. That's what we're here to talk about. I think
you're going to find it interesting.
>>>>Great, another “economics lesson” from the President, our “entrepreneur”-turned public servant who couldn’t even get rich on oil in Texas. Later tonight I’m watching a lecture on health tips from David Crosby.
The best news is I'm not doing all the talking. I've got some of your
fellow citizens here on stage with me that will help make the points necessary
-- make the points that say, look, this is a hopeful time; we've just got to
make sure we educate people for the jobs which will exist. That's what we're
here to talk about.
>>>>>I’m sure I’m just cynical and that isn’t possible that these “fellow citizens” were pre-screened by the President’s handlers to ensure that they would be “on message”. More importantly, shouldn’t true conservatives be insulted at the notion that the federal government should have a hand in job training? Seems to me that if jobs are there, people will do what’s necessary to meet the qualifications necessary to fill those jobs. The administration’s position here is a desperate attempt to blame the American people for the unemployment rate by saying in a backhanded way that it isn’t that jobs aren’t there, it’s that our workforce is too stupid to fill them!
A community college is a great place to have this discussion, because the
community colleges are very well-adapted to meeting the needs of local
employers. They're flexible, they're able to say to an employer, what do you
need, and we'll educate the people for the kind of workers you need. That's
why we're here at this community college. Thanks for receiving me.
>>>>>Good, let’s dwell on some positive words – “community” and “college”. Maybe if people hear him say those words enough they’ll forget that they don’t have jobs.
Lieutenant Governor Rockefeller is with us. Win, I'm glad you're here.
Thank you for coming. (Applause.) Congressman John Boozman, he's up from
north Arkansas, but he's down here in south Arkansas. (Applause.) Thank you
for coming, John. I'm glad you're here. And Kathy is with him, too. I
appreciate the Mayor, Bobby Beard. Where are you, Bobby? Yes, Bobby.
(Applause.) Bobby, you would think you would get a better seat. (Laughter.)
I appreciate you. Just pick up the garbage. (Laughter.) Thanks for coming.
Thanks for the hospitality.
I appreciate your troopers out there -- state -- the city police helping
us come into town. Thanks a lot. I want to thank all the local officials
here from El Dorado who are here with us, as well, and the county officials.
I appreciate the fact that you've allowed Lane Jean, who is the Mayor of
Magnolia, to be here. Mr. Mayor, I appreciate you coming over from Magnolia,
Arkansas. (Applause.)
When I landed out there, I met a fellow named Joe McFadden. (Applause.)
Joe brought his family. (Laughter.) Where are you, Joe? Oh, there's Joe,
right here, yes. Same guy I met at the airport. (Laughter.) Here's the
reason I want to talk about Joe, right quick. People say America is strong
because of our military. And we have a strong military, and I'm going to keep
the military strong. (Applause.) Or people say we're strong because we're
the most prosperous nation on the world, and that's positive. We want to keep
it that way.
We're strong, however, because of people like Joe. See, we're strong
because of the hearts and souls of our citizens. That's really our strength.
The strongest part about this country is the fact that we have people who are
willing to volunteer time, to make the community in which they live a better
place. See, Joe is involved with Main Street El Dorado. It's a way to make
sure downtown El Dorado, Arkansas, has been revitalized, which is good for the
community. He's also involved with the Boy Scouts. That's a wonderful
program. It's a good way to pass on values from one generation to the next.
Joe is a soldier in the army of compassion. That's what he is.
>>>>>”Soldier in the army of compassion.” Read that a few more times and see if it doesn’t make you crazy. We get it, Mr. President – Joe is a good guy. There are 2.5 million solid people out there who have lost their jobs in the last 3 years... are their hearts and souls any weaker than Joe’s?
My call to our fellow citizens is, serve your country by loving a neighbor
just like you'd like to be loved yourself. Help feed the hungry. Help find
shelter for the homeless. Help a child learn to read. Find somebody who is
lonely and surround them with love. See, government can hand out money, it
can dispense justice, but government can't cause people to love. Love happens
when you get inspired in your hearts. My call is to serve like Joe.
(Applause.)
I appreciate you, Joe. Thank you for setting such a good example.
(Applause.)
>>>>>Funny that nobody is in more of a position to do something to feed the hungry, find shelter for the homeless, help children learn to read, etc., than President Bush, yet he urges others to do what he will not.
First I want to tell you you're looking at an optimistic fellow, for a lot
of reasons. I have seen what our country has come through, and we're strong,
stronger than ever. The economy is growing. But let me remind you right
quick what we have come through, which makes the statement, "the economy is
growing," even more profound.
>>>>>More profound than “the economy is growing”?!?!?! Is that “I Am The Walrus”-profound or “no two snowflakes are alike” profound?
We went through a recession. That's a hard time for a lot of people.
That means the country is going backwards in the economy -- in other words,
we're not growing. And if you're somebody who is looking for work during a
recession, it's hard to find a job. If you're a small business during a
recession, your future is doubtful, it's cloudy. Things don't look so good.
We passed tax relief, which made this recession the shallowest -- one of the
shallowest in economic history. In other words, we started to grow.
Just as we started to grow, the enemy hit us. And that hurt. It hurt in
a lot of ways. It hurt our economy. We lost nearly a million jobs in the
three months after the enemy attack. Just remember, during this attack we
shut down the airlines; the stock markets closed down for a while. In other
words, it hurt our economy. It also changed our outlook.
>>>>>Let’s clear up a bit of revisionist history here. September 11 changed a lot of things, but it didn’t cause the recession. Furthermore, it didn’t do even close to the economic damage to our economy that the Enron, Worldcom and Tyco scandals did. Now that we have long since squandered our record tax surplus by giving it to corporate interests and the upper class while also basically going into Iraq with only token support from any nation other than the United Kingdom, foreign investors continue to worry about the stability of the U.S. economy and subsequently the world economy. Sorry, back to the message...
When I was coming up -- in Midland, Texas, I want you to know --
(applause) -- there you go -- which is where Laura is today, helping her Mom
move, and she sends her love -- but we thought oceans could protect us from
harm's way. And therefore, if you think an ocean can protect you from harm's
way, and you see a threat somewhere else, you can decide to deal with it or
not, you're pretty well assured that you would be safe here at home.
But they hit us. And it changed the way government must think about
threats. We can't take them for granted anymore. I vowed that day that we
would bring justice to the killers. We have been on the offense since that
day. We'll stay on the offense until those who have done us harm are brought
to justice. (Applause.)
>>>>>...and evidently, even those who have not done us any harm – can’t discriminate these days when it comes to dispensing “justice”. Not to be coast-centric or anything, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that on days where the President isn’t there, Arkansas is pretty safe from terrorism even now.
It affected us, it affected us. It was a challenge we had to overcome.
First we had to overcome a recession, then we had to overcome an attack on our
country. And just as we started coming out of that period -- and we came out,
by the way, because America refused to be intimidated. See, one of the
greatest things about this country is the spirit of the Americans. You just
heard me talk about the compassion. We've also got great spirit in this
country. We are a determined, strong people. (Applause.)
>>>>>Yeah, we got that. Compassion, spirit, soul, hearts, strength... we are all soldiers in your army of compassion.
Just as we started coming out of that, it turned out that some of our
citizens forgot what it meant to be responsible citizens. You know what I'm
talking about, those who didn't tell the truth to their shareholders and their
employees. We passed tough laws. Democrats and Republicans came together in
Washington, D.C., and sent a very clear message: We're not going to tolerate
dishonesty in the boardrooms of America; we'll hold people to account for not
telling the truth. (Applause.)
>>>>>Yet reports have shown that corporate salaries and stock options are already reflective of an economic boom, even as the economy struggles to overcome recession. I wonder how many jobs could be created at Disney with a couple million dollars’ worth of Michael Eisner’s stock options? Even conservative economists worry openly that stocks are dangerously overvalued... I don’t think the bad citizens got that message you spoke of, Mr. President.
However, that affected us, and it shook our confidence, when you think
about it. When you think people are lying about their numbers, it affects the
confidence. We're regaining that confidence, because you're seeing what's
happening to people who didn't tell the truth. One good way to clean up the
boardrooms is to send some of those who betrayed the trust -- bring them to
justice, is the best way to put it.
And then, as I told you, September the 11th changed our calculation. Let
me put it to you this way: When we see a gathering threat, we must deal with
it before it materializes, is the best way to put it. Threats are dealt in
different ways, by the way. Not every threat is dealt with the way I decided
to deal with the threat in Iraq.
We looked at the intelligence in Iraq and saw a threat. The United States
Congress, people in both political parties, looked at the same intelligence
and came to the same conclusion. They saw a threat. The United Nations
Security Council looked at that intelligence and, once again, it saw a threat.
So you might remember, I went to New York and gave the speech in front of the
U.N. Security Council and said, for 12 or 11 years, you have said this man's a
threat; let's make -- let's make your words mean something. If he's a threat,
let's give him a chance to disarm one more time and get rid of his weapons
programs. As you might recall, he chose defiance.
>>>>>As I recall, Hussein allowed the UN into Iraq. The U.S. spin machine is what convinced Americans that his compliance was unsatisfactory. Note that for all of our searching of a country that we now occupy, nobody can seem to find any WMD.
So I was in a dilemma. I had a choice to make: Do I trust the word of a
madman, a tyrant, somebody who had used weapons of mass destruction on his own
people and on countries within his neighborhood, or do I remember the lessons
of September the 11th and defend America? Given the choice between a madman
and defending the country, I will defend America every time. (Applause.)
Thank you all.
>>>>>What, specifically, were you defending America from, Mr. President? The most wanted man from the 9/11 attacks is still at large! It’s like a broken record – the administration always throws the first pitch on Iraq by grouping it with 9/11 and the War on Terror. If the pitch isn’t over the plate, they fall back on “liberation” and “democracy”. I’ll ask again... if there were no WMD, which there aren’t, what was the threat and how are we reducing it now!?!??!
Bob was telling me Brian Mackham (phonetic) is here. Where's Brian?
Somewhere. Brian, thanks. You just got back from Iraq?
MR. MACKHAM: My dad did.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, okay. Hi, Dad. Thank you. I appreciate your
service. (Applause.) Mr. Mackham. Mr. Mackham. Colonel Mackham. What are
you?
CORPORAL MACKHAM: -- Lance Corporal.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel now as far as I'm concerned. (Laughter and
applause). Thank you for your service. Thank you for helping make America
more secure. We've got tough work there because, you see, there are
terrorists there who would rather kill innocent people than allow for the
advance of freedom. That's what you're seeing going on. These people hate
freedom. and we love freedom. And that's where the clash occurs. See, we
don't think freedom is America's gift to the world. We know that freedom is
the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world. That's what we
know. (Applause.)
>>>>>First off, I'm sure it's an honor for a real actual millitary man to be praised by a Commander-In-Chief with such a prestigious military record. When Bush uses phrases like “the Almighty” to justify his policy, his speech sounds too similar to that of the radical muslims who hate freedom. This underlines a total lack of understanding of the Middle East and the politics involved in the War on Terror. The radical muslim clerics in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran indoctrinate the masses with fears that the Christian infidels from the west will bring death and destruction in their quest to dominate the region and its oil, and then our very own leader continually invokes “the Almighty” in explaining our lofty goals. Moron.
And Mackham will tell you there's a lot of brave people there that want to
be free, but they've been tortured and terrorized and traumatized by a tyrant.
And it's going to take a while for them to understand what freedom is all
about. We will pass sovereignty on June 30th. We will stay the course in
Iraq. We're not going to be intimidated by thugs or assassins. We're not
going to cut and run from the people who long from freedom. Because, you know
what? We understand a free Iraq is an historic opportunity to help change the
world to be more peaceful. That's what we understand in this country.
>>>>>What country is he talking about, because ours certainly doesn’t seem to “understand” very well. Note the crafty alliteration in the first sentence – tortured terrorized traumatized tyrant.
I want to appreciate your service. For those of you who've got relatives
in the Armed Forces, email them and tell them the Commander-in-Chief is
incredibly proud of the sacrifice and service to our country. (Applause.)
>>>>>Yes, thank them for doing the Lord’s work, evidently.
Laura reminded me that one time on the TV screens in the summer of 2000 we
saw, "March to War." It is hard to have economic vitality when you're
marching to war. That's a negative thought. It's about as negative a thought
as you can think about. And so one of the hurdles we had to overcome besides
recession, attack, corporate scandal, was the fact that I made the decision to
defend us. We marched to war. It was a challenge we had to overcome. If
you're somebody that's going to invest capital, in other words, if you're
somebody that's trying to expand your business, you're going to probably
hesitate if we're marching to war. If you're somebody looking for work, it's
going to be harder to find work when the country is thinking about, we're
going to war.
>>>>>Bush’s team just looooves him mentioning his wife by name – note that this is the second time he does so on this day and quite clumsily at that. He is correct that in the summer of 2000 we saw a “march to war”, but it was disguised as Bush’s presidential campaign. I think the summer he’s referring to is the summer of 2002. But this undercuts a larger epiphany here.... is the President actually admitting that his Iraq war, which most would argue in hindsight was completely unnecessary, is partially responsible for hurting our economy?
We're now marching to peace. That's what we're doing. We've overcome
that hurdle. I saw we've overcome these four things. I just want to remind
you of the statistics. Economic growth in the second half of 2003 was very
strong. Manufacturing activity is up. One of the statistics I love to quote
is that home ownership rates are the highest in our nation's history. More
people own their home in America -- (applause). I'm particularly proud of the
fact that more minority families own their home now. And that's an important
statistic. We want more people owning something in America. (Applause.) The
more people who own something, the more they have a vital stake in the future
of this country. We want there to be a vibrant ownership society all
throughout our country.
Recently, we saw that we added 308,000 new jobs for the month of March --
that's a positive sign -- plus 750,000 jobs since last August. This economy
is strong and it is getting stronger. And I intend to keep it that way
through good policy. (Applause.)
>>>>>What hurdle is he talking about? It can’t be the Iraq war, because American soldiers are dying for that cause even as the President delivers this speech. It can’t be the recession, because we’re still down almost 2 million jobs since that started – even when you factor in the new numbers. Home ownership is up because of the ridiculously low mortgage rates have been the only thing keeping the economy afloat. Again, even conservative analysts think that real estate is a bubble market right now, so this is kind of like being proud that so many minorities owned stock in 1998. The truth is, Mr. President, the economy will continue to be hindered by its super-high energy bill, part of which has been made possible by the Iraq war.
Let me talk real quick about a couple of things we need to do to make sure
that people can find work here at home. First, we've got to make sure that
we're confident in trade policy. There's economic isolationists that want to
wall us off from the rest of the world. I don't think that makes any sense.
You're about to hear from a man who sells product overseas. And if he's
selling product overseas, it means somebody is working. That's what that
means. And, see, Presidents before me, of both parties, said, let's open up
our markets, for the good of the consumer. See, the more choice you have in
Arkansas, the more likely it is you're going to get something you want at a
better price.
>>>>>...and the easier it is to send your factories to Mexico. I think the “Presidents before me” that Bush is talking about was born in Arkansas – Bill “The Antichrist” Clinton. Kind of an underhanded, anonymous way to give him credit for something, but the mere fact that Bush giving undue credit to his own administration for NAFTA is striking in itself. But regardless of that, Bush’s assertion that rolling back NAFTA would “wall us off from the rest of the world” is completely disingenuous – supporters of such policy such as Dennis Kucinich favor bilateral trade policy, not isolationist trade policy. Were we walled off from the world before NAFTA?
And the problem is, other countries haven't treated us the same. That's
the problem. And so my job is to say to other countries, if we're going to
open up our product -- our markets for your products, you open up yours for
us, because we're the best at what we do. (Applause.) We're great farmers,
we're great ranchers, we're great timber people, we're great entrepreneurs and
manufactures. Give us a level playing field, and we can compete with anybody,
anytime, anywhere. That's my attitude.
>>>>>The President has had three years in which to do something about this and has done very little other than talk about it. He certainly hasn’t changed the approach towards China, which one assumes is the primary representative of his “other countries” reference. Funny given the uproar over outsourcing that Bush would include “anywhere” in his pro wrestling-style trade challenge that began “anybody, anytime...”
Secondly, we need good tort laws. You cannot run and expand your
business, you can't find work here if people are getting sued all the time.
We've got too many junk lawsuits. (Applause.) We've got to worry about the
cost of medical care. If you're somebody hiring somebody, if you're a small
business owner, the cost of health care makes it awfully difficult to put
people on the payroll. And, therefore, we need association health care plans
that allow small businesses to pool their resources -- pool risk, just like
big businesses get to do, so health care is more affordable for the small
business sector.
>>>>>The legal system is the only thing currently protecting the average citizen from corporate America right now, because the Federal Government sure as hell doesn’t want to do it. Rolling out a bunch of tort “reform” would do more harm than good in that it would increase the already infallible attitude expanding in big corporate America.
We need to expand health savings accounts. It's a new product. I'm
telling you, it's going to make a big difference at controlling costs. We
need medical liability reform at the federal level. See, docs are getting
sued too often, and they're leaving these small communities and rural
communities in America, which means you don't have health care, you don't have
access to a doc. Plus, those who are hanging around are having to practice
what's called defensive medicine, which is running up the cost. The cost of
health care is tough to expand the job base. If we want jobs to stay at home,
and if we want the job base to expand, we've got to do something about the
cost of health care.
>>>>>His failure to explain the policy of health savings accounts – apart from “it’s a new product” – is indicative of a lack of understanding of what he’s really talking about. He spoke about the recent prescription drug bill in the same vague terms, and that turned out to be an outright fleecing of the elderly. As long as the health care industry is pushed toward the private sector, it’s going to be run the same way other big businesses are run.
We need an energy plan in this country. I'm telling you, it's hard to
expand our job base, it's hard to keep jobs here at home if you're worried
about the reliability of electricity and if you're worried about finding
natural gas at reasonable price.
I put out a plan to the United States Congress a while ago. I think a
while ago means a couple of years ago, by the way. Sometimes progress is
slow. (Laughter.) It said, let's make the electricity systems reliable. See,
if you're a manufacturer, and you're wondering whether or not you're going to
have electricity the next day, if that worry is in your mind, it's hard to
expand your business. Let's make sure we utilize coal in America; clean coal
technology is important. Let's make sure we explore for natural gas here
within our territories. Let's encourage conservation. Let's be smart about
technology. But for the sake of jobs and job expansion, we must become less
dependent on foreign sources of energy. (Applause.)
>>>>>Could he really be referring to the energy “plan” drawn up by Dick Cheney and a panel of unnamed energy company executives during the first year of the Bush administration? The same plan whose architects Cheney refuses to name under the umbrella of executive privilege? If that’s the plan he’s talking about, the point of the plan is that we will rely foreign oil for the next 50 years, not “let’s make the electricity systems reliable”. Once again being disingenuous, Bush is indirectly trying to say that although he wanted to make electricity systems reliable, congress has been dragging its feet. What is disingenuous about it is that Bush said nothing publicly about the reliability of the electric grid until last year’s blackout in the Northeastern U.S., which the administration initially blamed on Canada. Furthermore, Bush has never done a damn thing to encourage conservation or becoming less dependent on foreign energy sources. That is, nothing other than talking about it.
I'm getting there, I promise you. I'm winding up. You're probably
wondering if anybody else is going to say a word. (Laughter.) Thankfully,
Laura is not here. She's be going -- (Laughter.) One of the reasons why we
grew is because of tax relief. And a lot of that tax relief is set to expire
this year. The child credit is going down, which means if you've got a child,
you're fixing to pay more taxes. It's a bad time to be raising taxes.
The marriage penalty is going back up. See, one of the things we did, in
working with the Congress, is reduce the effects of the marriage penalty. I
don't quite get a tax system that discourages marriage by taxing it. It just
doesn't make any sense. We ought to be encouraging marriage in America, not
discouraging that institution. (Applause.)
>>>>>Another akward strategic reference to the President’s wife, Laura Bush... and just in time for the President’s scary talk about tax cuts! The child tax credit is such a small part of the overall tax relief package that the President is looking to renew that it’s a joke – look at the numbers and look at who 98 percent of the money goes to. As far as marriage goes, maybe we should focus more on discouraging divorce.
I insisted, on the tax relief, we cut the rates on everybody who pays
taxes. Some of them howled up in Washington when I did that. See, my
attitude is, government ought not to play favorites in the tact of "you don't
pay taxes, but you do." My attitude was, everybody who pays taxes ought to
get relief if we're going to have relief. It also had this effect. You see,
most small businesses in America are sole proprietorships or sub-chapter S
corporations. That means they pay tax at the individual income tax. If you're
worried about jobs -- see, when I hear people looking for work and they can't
find jobs, I worry about it -- then what you want to do is stimulate small
business growth, because 70 percent of the new jobs in America are created by
small businesses.
And when you cut the individual income tax rates, you're affecting small
businesses in a significant way. You get more money in the pockets of the
small business owners, which makes it more likely they're going to hire
somebody. So by cutting the individual income tax rates, we sent a message,
loud and clear, that small businesses matter in America. Small businesses are
the primary job creators in this country. We want there to be a small
business sector which is really strong. Congress needs to make all the tax
cuts we pass permanent in order to make sure this economic recovery lasts.
(Applause.)
>>>>>Sounds nice, except the bulk of the tax cut went to big business and not small business. Sole proprietors such as myself often are in no position to hire somebody full-time, certainly not with benefits, so if these are the kind of jobs that the President is talking about creating, no thanks. I think the jobs that most of the country is concerned about creating are jobs with full benefits like the 12,500 that Bank of America cut earlier this week. At best, a sole proprietor will hire 2 or 3 people in a good year, and without benefits. Again, this is such a misrepresentation of the Bush tax cut that it’s ridiculous. Listen to John Kerry and Howard Dean and then look at the numbers – almost half of average Americans saw no tax cut, and those who did were compensated for it with skyrocketing taxes on the state and local level.
I told you we're creating new jobs. Let me tell you something really
interesting about Arkansas -- and this is going to get us to the discussion, I
promise you. (Laughter.) Jobs in computer and math-related fields are
expected to rise by nearly 60 percent by the year 2010 in the state of
Arkansas. Health care and technical jobs are expected to rise by nearly 40
percent. That's an interesting statistic I want people to focus on right
quick. In other words, there's going to be jobs. The question is, are people
going to be prepared to fill those jobs. That's really what we're here to
talk about today.
>>>>>Did the federal government have to subsidize job training during the industrial age? Was there a federal program to teach people how to use the cotton gin? IF THE JOBS ARE THERE, THEN THE PEOPLE WILL LEARN HOW TO DO THEM. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say about this.
There's jobs.
>>>>>No, there isn’t. That’s why all of these Arkansans have the time to hang out and listen to you talk in front 5,000 American flags for an hour.
It's just some people are used to working in different kind
of fields. And there's ways to get retrained for the jobs. That's what we're
going to talk about here in a second. Before we do, I want you to know I
fully understand that we've got to get it right at early grades. The No Child
Left Behind Act is a really good piece of law, for this reason: It finally
asked a question whether or not our children are learning to read, write, and
add and subtract early. That's what it's asking. It doesn't seem too much to
ask, does it, for increased federal spending? You know, it's an important
question to ask, because if you don't ask, you don't find out. And we better
find out now, before it's too late.
>>>>>The No Child Left Behind Act is a good law, but laws are just words. Unfortunately, the President didn’t feel the need to give the funding necessary to this program, which is one of the reasons that the co-architect and the man single-handedly responsible for passing the bill through the Senate, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), continues to trash you at every opportunity he has, because you used him to run a bill through the senate that you had no intention of funding.
This business about shuffling kids through the system is going to end, as
far as I'm concerned. You know who is easy to shuffle? Inner-city black
kids; that's who is easy to shuffle. It's easy to quit on them. You walk
into a classroom, see a bunch of the so-called "hard to educate," let's just
shuffle them through. That's not fair. It's easy to quit on families who
don't speak English as a first language -- he's a little too hard to educate,
the best thing we've got to do here is just move him through. That's not
going to work. It's not American. You see, I believe every child can learn.
I believe every child has got it in him to learn. We must raise the
standards. (Applause.)
>>>>>Certainly nobody knows more about being shuffled through the system than our President. The problem, as always, comes down to money. When you refuse to give aid to the nation’s worst schools, they are unable to pay quality teachers and provide them the resources to teach ANY kids. One can only hope that black people can see though this crap, because the pandering to minorities here is insane. Hard to raise standards if you can’t fund the schools.
The reason you have an accountability system is to test what you're --
whether what you're doing is working. The reason you have an accountability
system is to solve problems early, before it's too late. Part of the No Child
Left Behind Act says, when we find a child who has fallen behind early,
there's extra help, extra money, extra ability to make sure kids get caught
up. That's a vital part of making sure that our children have the skills
necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century.
We need to do more. See, I think high schools need to be -- need to have
the bar raised. I think all high schools ought to participate in what's
called the NAEP. The NAEP is a national norming (sic) test. It's not a
national test. It says, there is -- they take the Arkansas test and they
compare them to other states to determine whether or not standards are being
met. That's all it is. You need to know. Your Governor needs to know, the
citizens need to know how you stack up relative to other places, if you expect
to educate children for the jobs of the 21st century. If you want Kathy not
to have to reeducate people, you better get it right early. That's what I'm
saying. (Applause.)
>>>>>So wait, is it or isn’t it a national test? Once again the President seems to have difficulty explaining one of the policies he’s endorsing.
We recognize that some of the kids haven't had the advantage of
accountability early, and so they've been shuffling through. So I put out an
initiative called the Striving Readers initiative, which is a competitive
grant program that will help intervention with 8th and 9th and 10th grade kids
now. In other words, we've got some kids -- one of the things that's important
for those of us in positions of responsibility, you've got to be just flat
honest about things. We've got kids who can't read, see, and they're moving
through. And we've got to stop it. And we've got to solve the problem.
And so this initiative I've sent up to Congress provides $100 million for
competitive grants so that the school district here, if you need it, can
access the money to have strong intervention programs. We've got a
mathematics and science partnership program. One of the problems we've got,
you heard me describe the kinds of jobs that will be available in Arkansas by
2010 -- you better make sure your math programs and science programs work.
See, a new skill-set is necessary to fill the new jobs. And therefore, we
put out a program, a math and science partnership program, which will help
teachers with curriculum, but also provide extra help for kids just to make
sure they don't get shuffled through. I mean, literacy is more than just
being able to read. There's math literacy, as well, that we want to effect.
>>>>>I’m just going to let the President’s empty words speak for themselves here. Read those last three paragraphs again.
We've got an adjunct teacher program. That's an important way to help
recruit professionals into the classroom to teach math. If you've got
yourself a retired NASA employee in your neighborhood, it seems like to me you
want to be able to have that person go into the classrooms and teach science
or math. One of the things the superintendent may tell you here, I know I've
heard it from other superintendents, is that we've got a shortage of math
teachers and science teachers. This is a practical way, Governor, to get
people into the classrooms, to make sure that kids have got the skills
necessary to be employable in the 21st century.
Perhaps you've heard of the Carl D. Perkins Act, which is vocational
training program. We spent about $1 billion a year for vocational training,
and that's good. The program was written in 1917. I don't know if they
understood what was going to be taking place in the year 2004. I suspect they
didn't. I suspect they would be shocked to hear us talk about the skill level
necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century. My attitude is, is that this
vocational training program ought to go forth, but it ought to make sure that
the kids learn to speak English and that there's algebra, and that there's a
science and social science component.
In other words, when kids are coming out of a vocational training program,
they're going to need to do more than just what's taught at the vocational
training level. They're going to need to be able to think. And we can't let
kids go through without raising the standards and raising the bar. So I'm
going to ask Congress to reform the Perkins Vocational Program. That's not to
cut back on the money; it's quite the contrary. It's to make sure the money
we are spending prepares these youngsters for the jobs of the 21st century.
I've got some other ideas I want to share with you right quick, and then I
promise you. (Laughter.) One of the challenges is to continue to raise
standards, it's to raise that bar. A great way to do so is to expand advanced
placement programs all across America. We've got a federal program that does
just that. It says we're going to train more teachers on how to teach AP.
(Applause.)
>>>>>AP programs are great, but shouldn’t we be focusing on raising the bar on the kids the President was just speaking of, the ones who can’t read in 10th grade?
Let me tell you one of the problems with advanced placement. You've got a
kid going through AP, and they go home and say, I need my money to take the
test. And if you're low-income, that money means a lot to you. We need to
help low-income students take the advanced placement test by paying for the
entrance exam, is what we ought to do. (Applause.) I think that will help
you attract people to the AP program. Advanced placement means you're taking
college-level-type courses in high school. It means we're preparing people
for the jobs of the 21st century.
>>>>>Finally, here’s some solid educational policy from the President that actually makes sense. It’s a start.
We've got a State Scholars program here in Arkansas. We're going to hear
-- right there is the leading evangelist for the State Scholar program. We'll
talk about it. It's a rigorous academic program. In other words it's one
thing to intervene and make sure kids don't get left behind; it's another
thing to keep raising those standards, raising the bar. What I want to do is
enhance the Pell Grants, that says, if you take the State Scholars program in
Arkansas, you get more money for your Pell Grant. It provides incentive. It
says, for rigorous academics, we want to help you more with the Pell Grant.
It means you get to go to college, get help. But it says to a kid -- take
math and science, is what it takes. You're going to hear what it means in a
minute.
>>>>>Here I was hoping to see the President take a pop quiz on algebra and plant biology, but unfortunately it was not to be. Remember, this is the same President who practically brags about the C average he dragged throughout his own academic career, despite being measured as having a very capable 125 IQ. I guess President isn’t one of these “jobs of the 21st century” he’s talking about.
The other thing I want to do is to make a -- we've set up a Presidential
Math and Science Scholars Fund, $50 million of federal money matched by $50
million in the private sector -- we'll be able to raise that -- that says that
when you go to college, we'll enhance your Pell Grant if you continue to take
math and science programs. See, we want people to be prepared for the 21st
century, that's what we want. We want to keep raising that bar. We want to
make sure nobody gets left behind, but at the same time, we want to provide
proper incentives, so people can have hope in this country. That's what we're
talking about.
>>>>>Here we go with the campaign slogans again – no child left behind, raise the bar, hope, etc. Shocking that he wasn’t able to invoke the army of compassion here.
Listen, the jobs will be there.
>>>>>Comforting.
We're going to stay on the edge of technological change. We've just got to make sure people are prepared for the jobs.
>>>>>Let’s make a deal – you show me the jobs first, okay?
You're about to hear two interesting stories about people who made some
decisions in their life. The final thing I want to mention to you, in
conjunction with these two stories, is that there's a lot of people that need
help now that have been out of school for a while. And that's where the
community colleges come in. Yesterday I gave a speech at a community college
in North Carolina -- before I went over and unleashed my fast ball in St.
Louis. (Laughter.) And I talked about a direct grant program to help
collaborative efforts between community colleges and job providers. See,
that's the way you make sure people are trained for jobs which exist. I
talked about reforming the WorkForce Investment Act so it actually functions,
by getting more people trained for the jobs.
>>>>>Hold on, I’m confused. You said the jobs “will” be there, but now you’re referring to “jobs which exist”. Where? There are millions of people who want to know!
But the community college system is really an important part of our
future, and that's why we're here. And so I want to first start off with
Kathy. I want her to describe to you some of the programs that she's doing
here. I think you'll find them interesting -- the nursing program, for
example.
Kathy, thanks for having me. Why don't you inform the good folks about
this great asset they have in their community? (Applause.)
* * * * * END OF SPEECH * * * * *
IN SUMMARY: In the interest of sparing the repetition, I stopped short of annotating the ensuing Q&A session with the preselected regular citizens of Arkansas. Overall, while delivering a couple of solid policy assertions, the President’s speech is once again full of empty catch phrases and promises to push his reelection campaign, not to mention justifying his increasingly costly and controversial war in Iraq.
Until next time,
jm
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