The president was adamant in support of the initiative, listing the program's successes:
"The most important result of the No Child Left Behind is this: Fewer students are falling behind; more students are achieving high standards. We have what's called the Nation's Report Card. For those who wonder whether or not we should strengthen No Child Left Behind, I want you to hear this: 4th graders earned the highest reading and math scores in the history of the test. Minority and disadvantaged students made some of the largest gains, with African Americans and Hispanics posting all-time highs in several categories," he said.
President Bush came to office in 2001 promising to overhaul the nation's education program. No Child Left Behind was launched in 2002. It sought to raise school standards and provide more flexibility for parents seeking to place their children in different schools.
Today, Bush spoke of the reasons for creating No Child Left Behind.
"We saw a culture of low expectations. You know what happens when you have low expectations? You get lousy results. And when you get lousy results, you have people who say, there's no future for me in this country. And so we decided to do something about it," he said.
Bush also defended the controversial testing standards included in the program, saying:
"The key to measuring is to test. And by the way, I've heard every excuse in the book why we should not test -- oh, there's too many tests; you teach the test; testing is intrusive; testing is not the role of government. How can you possibly determine whether a child can read at grade level if you don't test? And for those who claim we're teaching the test, uh-uh. We're teaching a child to read so he or she can pass the test."
The president also hailed No Child Left Behind's school choice options:
"By the way, school choice was only open to rich people up until No Child Left Behind. It's hard for a lot of parents to be able to afford to go to any other kind of school but their neighborhood school. Now, under this system, if your public school is failing, you'll have the option of transferring to another public school or charter school. And it's -- I view that as liberation. I view that as empowerment."
