Our President
Forum 2002 Address
To Shorten the Shadow: Providing High Expectations in Education
Con't
The second pillar of our democracy is universal education. The Truman Commission in 1947 put education at the center of the American ideal. It said, "Education is by far the biggest and most powerful, and most hopeful of our nation's enterprises. Long ago, our people recognized that education for all is not only democracy's obligation but its necessity. Education is the foundation of democratic liberties and without a citizenry alert to preserve and extend freedom, it would not long endure."
Lyndon Johnson recognized that a great society recognized the need of a great school system. Not just for some, but for all. And funding for education went during that period from $2 billion to $9 billion. It led to the single greatest increase in college attendance.
This work for education continues. It strengthens the bedrock of our society. America's quest for educational empowerment is enduring, and it is indispensable, constantly reminding and reaffirming to us that education must be a national priority. The College Board has played an important role over the last 100-plus years, but we must do more. And we can.
When I became President of the College Board, I was asked to do more. I'm interested not just in ways to grade students better, but in ways to upgrade their skills better; not to be a gate, but to be a gateway.
I'm proud of what we're accomplishing, but I deeply believe that we are only beginning. We are learning from criticisms we have heard; we appreciate the new ideas that we get; and we will become more effective, and stronger, and better. Our biggest concern, and I know that for each of you it's your biggest concern, is the opportunity gap that continues to exist in education. I'd like to quote again from the Truman report of 1947. It says, "One of the gravest charges to which American society is subject is that of failing to provide a reasonable quality of educational opportunity for its youth ... the kind and amount of education that they may hope to attain depends not on their abilities, but on their family or the community into which they happened to be born, or still worse, the color of their skin."
