Our President
Forum 2002 Address
To Shorten the Shadow: Providing High Expectations in Education
Con't
Fourth is what will come out in our Blue Ribbon Commission, and that is that America has to be sure that every student who is prepared to go to college will have the money to go to college.
Now, each of you will think and ask, how do we pay the bills? But there is no such thing as high education quality on the cheap. Spending on education is a long-term investment. It is an investment that guarantees a rate of return, yielding dividends of a more productive and enlightened society. And while we cannot reverse inequality easily or instantly, we also cannot afford to regard it as a hopeless cause.
In the long term, underachievement has the highest price. America must pay for its aspirations and inspiration in education. It is time that we in America have the same ambitions for education that we have for science, for medicine, for business, and even sports. We know that achievement springs from vision and aspiration.
We didn't say we were going to reduce the pain of polio; we said we were going to eliminate it. We didn't say we were going to build a bigger rocket; we said we were going to the moon. We didn't wait for a better society; we invented it.
It is not enough to say that education is a priority; it's not enough to talk about it in campaigns or write editorials about it. It is time to resolve that we can and that we will fulfill at last that summons of the Truman Report. The promise of America and the destiny of American education is a system of learning that is second to none; one system, indivisible, open to all, with opportunity for all; a nation where investing in the child's mind becomes our most important investment. Thank you very much.
