Bill Clinton: “Secondary Education Act May 19, 1999 Good morning. I'm delighted to be joined this morning by the Secretary of Education…”

“Secondary Education Act May 19, 1999 Good morning. I'm delighted to be joined this morning by the Secretary of Education and by my Domestic Policy Adviser, Bruce Reed, to discuss the very important issue of our children's schools. In my State of the Union Address this year, I said that in order to meet our responsibility to create 21st century schools for all our children, we have to do a far, far better job of spending the $15 billion in Federal aid we send to our schools every year. Building these kinds of schools has been a passion for me, for the Vice President, for Secretary Riley, for our entire administration. We have worked with Members of Congress and education leaders, people in every State of the country, for over 6 years now. We have supported higher standards, better teachers, new technology, modern facilities, innovations like charter schools, character education, school uniforms. But we know fundamentally that if we are going to change the way our schools work, we must change the way we invest Federal aid in our schools. On the way down here, just down the walk, the Secretary of Education said we have been working very hard to promote school standards around the country; now we have to get the standards actually into the schools. This week I am sending legislation to Congress designed to do just that. First, this legislation strengthens accountability for results.…”