Orange county california birth certificate

August 23, 2002

Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Gosh, thanks for coming today. It's my honor to be back in California--such a vibrant and exciting State. I am thrilled to be here in Santa Ana, and this is a vibrant city. And one reason why is because it's got such an energetic, visionary mayor. And Mr. Mayor, I appreciate--and I appreciate your hospitality. And I want to thank Laura, the first lady of this city.

I know something about marrying people named Laura. [Laughter] We both married above ourselves, Mr. Mayor. [Laughter] So, I want to thank you, and I want to thank your city council for hosting us here. And I want to thank very much the--I want to thank the fine folks at this beautiful facility for welcoming us. It's a magnificent asset for this community and for this county and for this State.

It's a thrill to be here to talk about some of the priorities for our Nation. We've got some big priorities, and we've got some big jobs to do. But there's no doubt in my mind we can achieve our objectives, because we're America, and we're full of Americans--people bold and courageous and strong.

But before I do so, I want to talk about two Members of the Congress who have joined us, two fine Americans and good, solid citizens and friends of mine. That would be Chris Cox and Ed Royce. Thank you both for coming.

Rosario Marin -- she's a former mayor in a little -- couple of cities away from here. She's now the Treasurer of the United States of America. And I appreciate you coming, Rosario.

I like to always say hello to the high sheriff. In this case, we've got two high sheriffs -- one I appreciate so much, Mike Carona. He's done a fine job. We saw him on TV the other day announcing an important arrest, saying he's going to help do everything he can to make neighborhoods safe. Sheriff, you did a fine job. And I also want to thank my friend Lee Baca for being here as well. Good to see you, Lee.

Everybody has got to have a good lawyer these days. [Laughter] And I've got one of the best, and he is here with his family, vacationing in Orange County. He came over from Washington, DC. He knows a good place to travel to when he sees one. And his name is Al Gonzales, and I want to thank my friend and lawyer, Al Gonzales, for being here.

And finally, I want to thank Francisco Paret for being here. He's a member of the President's Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. And that's a commission we take very seriously. We take it seriously because we understand every child in America must be educated in order for this country to realize its full promise. I don't mean a few children; I mean every single child.

And you've got your superintendent of schools here, a good, young leader. He told me the district is 92-percent Hispanic. My attitude is, so what? That means when you succeed, you've done such a great job for America. That's his attitude. You see, some would say, "Ninety-two-percent Hispanic, that's an impossible district." Some believe certain children can't learn. I don't believe that, and neither does the superintendent of schools.

You see, we start with the premise that every child can learn -- every child can learn. We set high standards because we believe that every child has got the capacity to learn. You see, if you set low standards in society, you know what you're going tc get? You're going to get low results. You have standards so low that you've got these school districts that are going to quit on certain kids. And guess who gets quit on here in America -- children whose parents don't speak English as a first language, for example. Those are the easiest kids to quit on. Or how about inner-city African American kids? They're easy to quit on.

For the sake of America, for the sake of our future, we must first and foremost understand every child can learn, and devise systems to make sure they do. That's why at the Federal level we're spending plenty of money, but we're also saying, "We trust you all to chart the path to excellence. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to running the public schools." But we're also saying, "Since we believe every child can learn, why don't you show us? Why don't you measure? You see, why don't you tell America or your community or your State whether or not your children are learning to read arid write and add and subtract?" And if they are, there will be plenty of praise. But you measure also to make sure that if children are failing, you catch the problems early, before it's too late. No child in America should be left behind. Every child, no matter his or her background, deserves a positive, solid, excellent education.

And we've got to do a better job. And we've got to face the facts that too many of our Latino youngsters aren't learning to read early enough. And that's a problem. If you can't read by the fourth grade. you're not going to be able to read by the eighth grade. And if you can't read by the eighth grade, you can't read in high school, It's a problem, and we've got to take it head on. That's why I want to make sure that we measure. That's why I want to make sure we challenge a system that sometimes has got standards so low. It's what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. So one of the things: we've done in the No Child Left Behind is; said, "Let's start with first things first. Let's make sure children can read, children from all backgrounds."

Here in California, our new law provides a 50-percent increase to help students from non-English-speaking homes learn to read. And that's important. No child should be left behind.

And so today, the Department of Education--I'm going to report to you, the Department of Education has awarded California a $133 million reading grant. And that's to make sure every child can read by the third grade. That's what that's for. I don't mean just a few. I don't mean those from the nice, fancy school districts. I mean every single child.

And one of the reasons why California is one of the first States to receive the grant is because California is using research-based instruction to teach reading. Your State, probably because your superintendent insists on it, has asked the question, "What works?" Not what sounds good, not what feels good, but what actually works. How do you teach kids to read? And that's what you're doing in this State, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing that. And we've got a little money to make sure it works and make sure that we focus on every child.

I don't care for the fact that a lot of the youngsters, the Latino youngsters, don't go to college. It's not a good statistic for America. Less than 10 percent go on to higher education. We must--we must work to encourage participation at all levels of education. But we must make it clear to our youngsters from all walks of life, but particularly Hispanic youngsters, that going to college is essential to being able to fully realize the American Dream.

All of us must set that clear goal for everybody, but we also must help. And that's why we've increased Pell grant funding by more than $2.5 billion from last year's budget to this year's budget. There's a way to help, and we need to help through good scholarship programs like Pell grants.

I also want to note--want you to know that we're focusing on what they call the Latino-serving higher institutions. For the fiscal year 2003 budget, I've asked for more money to go to support colleges which provide 600,000 Latino students nationwide with educational opportunities. It's an increase of 30 percent.

My point is, is that we've got to make sure that education is affordable and accessible. And we've got to set the goals. We've got to make people understand what is possible here in America. But first things first. We've got to make sure every child learns to read and no child is left behind.

The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans is launching what we call the "Yes I Can" national awareness campaign. And it's aimed at encouraging Latino students to obtain a college education. They called together citizens from around the country, they put together this initiative, this plan, this way to convince people that higher education is essential.

Parents can click onto a bilingual Web site called yesican.gov--yesican.gov, to learn about college costs, financial aid, and what their children should be asking their guidance counselor about college. In other words, it's a go-by, it's a help, it's a way to encourage people and help people understand that they--that sending their children to college here in America is a way forward.