THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

                      VICE PRESIDENT GORE OUTLINES
           VISION FOR AMERICAN EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

"Education Should No Longer be a Period in our Lives, but a Way of Life

in the 21st Century"

Lamoni, IA -- In his remarks today at Graceland Community College's commencement ceremony, Vice President Gore offered a blueprint for America's educational system in the 21st century, presenting an ambitious, fiscally responsible seven-point program of ideas for revolutionary change in American education.

Citing increased demand for higher skills in today's information-driven economy, growing challenges in schools across the country, and changes to the American family, the Vice President, speaking to students, parents, and teachers, called for making the next decade the education decade.

"There is nothing more important than providing all of our people with a high-quality education," Vice President Gore said. "We must take dramatic steps to improve our schools and ensure that education is no longer just a period in our lives, but a way of life in the 21st Century."

Specifically, the Vice President called for:

Making High-Quality Preschool Available to Every Child, In Every Community in America
The Vice President proposed enabling every state in America to develop and strengthen voluntary pre-school programs. Research shows that quality pre-school can lead to higher IQ's, higher reading and achievement levels, and even higher graduation rates and greater career success.

Improving Teacher Quality and Elevating the Teaching Profession The Vice President:

• proposed the creation of a new 21st Century Teachers Corps that would give young people who spend four years teaching in high-need schools up to $10,000 to pay for college and an additional $10,000 bonus for talented professionals willing to switch from other careers into teaching.
• proposed raising professional standards for teachers by calling on all new teachers to pass a rigorous test, including on subjects they will teach in the classroom.
• encouraged states and school districts to professionalize teaching through such measures as:
  • making it tougher to get fully licensed or tenured by setting higher standards and instituting peer reviews where a teacher's knowledge of subject matter and teaching proficiency are evaluated by other teachers and administrators.
  • creating faster, fair ways to identify, improve -- and when necessary -- remove low performing teachers.
  • rewarding good teaching by providing bonuses to master teachers and those who become certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

A Renewed Focus on Character, Discipline, Values, and Safety The Vice President proposed:

• the creation of second-chance schools, learning centers with strict discipline and intensive services for young people who have been expelled or got into serious trouble at school.
• an increased commitment to provide students with quality after-school programs and appeal for more civic and character education courses.
• that parents, teachers, and students meet together at the beginning of the school year and sign a strict discipline code and begin to plan for their year.

Reforming the American High School.
The Vice President proposed:

• reducing the class size to a national average of eighteen students in the early grades and aiming to reduce average class size to twenty students in all grades.
• giving principals, advised by teams of teachers, the power to hire staff and manage their own budget
• providing incentives to create smaller high schools or, for already existing schools, creating smaller "schools within schools".

An Aggressive Plan to Turn Around Failing Schools The Vice President proposed:

• that every state and school district should identify failing schools, and work to turn them around -- with strict accountability for results, and strong incentives for success.
• expanding parental choice in their children's public schools, applying pressure that will improve all schools.
• continuing to aggressively push to reduce the Hispanic dropout rate, and challenging every state and school district to cut in half the achievement gap between rich and poor, and between racial and ethnic groups in the next decade.
• making summer school more widely available, to give extra help to the kids who need it.

Tapping the Power and Potential of Technology to Improve Education in America
The Vice President proposed:

• finishing wiring every classroom and library to the Information Superhighway
• expanding teacher training in the newest education software -- and ensuring that software is available in every school, rich or poor.
• setting a goal that every child will be computer literate by the eighth grade.
• creating a nationwide army of on-line tutors and mentors.

Finding New Ways to Help Families Save and Pay for Their Children's College Education
The Vice President proposed:

• the creation of a National Tuition Savings Program to help families invest their money in special trusts which help pay for their children's tuition at universities outside of their state.
• the creation of new 401-J accounts, to let parents save for their children's college as well as their own post-secondary education and training, and enable those savings to be matched by interested employers and grow tax free.

"These are ideas that can have revolutionary consequences in schools," Vice President Gore said. "They will help our young people succeed through a strengthened commitment to quality public schools. While education must remain a state and local responsibility, our national government can and must be a catalyst for change."

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