THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  Hello!  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Everybody have a seat.  Have a seat, everybody.

It is wonderful to be here at Kenmore.  And I want to, first of all, thank our principal, Mr. -- Dr. John Word.  Doctor. (Applause.)  Superintendent of Arlington Public Schools, Patrick Murphy.  (Applause.)  I believe that the Arlington County School Board is represented here -- where are they?  There they are over there.  (Applause.)  All doing great work.  We've got your own congressman, Jim Moran, here in the house.  (Applause.)  And we've got somebody who I believe is going to go down as the finest Secretary of Education we've ever had -- Arne Duncan.  (Applause.)  

Now, before I begin, let me just say that like all Americans, I continue to be heartbroken by the images of devastation in Japan.  And I know all of you, young and old, have been watching the full magnitude of this tragedy unfold.  I want to reiterate（重申） America’s support for the people of Japan, who are some of our closest friends and allies.  And I’ve said directly to the Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Kan, that the United States will continue to offer any assistance we can as Japan recovers from multiple disasters, and we will stand with the people of Japan in the difficult days ahead.

Now, I just had a chance to talk with some of your teachers, as well as some students, who told me about your all-school project that’s weaving the life and music of Duke Ellington into your classes.  And by getting students engaged in learning, you’re teaching the kinds of skills about how to think and how to work together that young people are going to need in college and beyond.  That’s what all of our schools need to be doing.

And in an economy that’s more competitive and connected than ever before, a good job and a good career is going to demand a good education.  Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs are going to require more than a high school diploma.  So, if you want a bright future, you’re going to need a college degree or advanced training.

And as Arne mentioned, unfortunately too many students aren’t getting a world-class education today.  As many as a quarter of American students aren’t finishing high school.  The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.  And America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree.  Understand, we used to be first, and we now rank 9th.  That’s not acceptable.

And turning these statistics around isn’t just the right thing to do for our kids -- it’s the right thing to do for our economy, because the best jobs program out there is a good education.  The best economic policy is one that produces more college graduates.  (Applause.)  And that’s why, for the sake of our children and our economy and America’s future, we’re going to have to do a better job educating every single one of our sons and daughters -- all of them.

Now, that responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but it begins in our homes.  It begins with parents who are instilling in their kids not only a love of learning, but also the self-confidence and especially the self-discipline and work ethics that are at the heart of success in school and success in life.  We’ve got to work hard.  Young people, I’m talking to you. I’ve got a couple of them at home.  And the truth is the world is going to be more competitive and nobody is going to just give success to you -- you’re going to have to earn it.  And that means you’ve got to apply yourself.

So that, you’re going to learn at home -- first and foremost（首要的是） .  But that's not where the responsibility ends.  All of us have a responsibility, not just as parents, but as citizens, for giving our kids the best possible education.

Now, for a long time we weren’t sure about how to give our kids that kind of education.  There were a lot of arguments for a lot of years.  Some people thought if you just put more money into education that would solve the problem.  And then the other side thought, money doesn’t matter; what we need is reform.  In fact, there were those who argued that we should just dismantle the public education system altogether.  Rather than working together, both sides remained locked in this stalemate（僵局） year after year, decade after decade, and nothing much changed.

And then something began to happen in states and local schools districts.  Instead of getting caught up in these old, stale debates, people began to agree that, you know what, we need both more money and more reform.  We need more resources for the schools, but we’ve got to reorganize how our schools are doing business in order to assure success for our young people.   People began coming together -– parents, students, teachers, administrators, reformers, local officials -– and we started witnessing amazing success stories all across America.

There’s a school in Denver, Bruce Randolph School, that went from being one of the worst schools in Colorado to graduating 97 percent of its seniors last May.  In Cincinnati, Taft High School went from handing out only one diploma for every five students to graduating 95 percent of its seniors, and preparing them for careers in technology.

So our goal as an administration, my goal as President, has been to build on these successes across America.  We know what can work.  And so two years ago, we started doing exactly that -- trying to figure out how do we incentivize（激励） success by starting something, a competition called Race to the Top.  So what we’re doing is we’re saying to states, prove you’re serious about reform, and we’ll show you the money.

And because it’s a competition for less than one percent of what our country spends on education each year, Race to the Top has led over 40 states to raise their standards for teaching, learning, and student achievement -- and these standards weren’t developed in Washington but they were developed by Republican and Democratic governors all across this country.

So we’ve made enormous progress.  As Arne has said, this is probably the most significant education reform initiative that we’ve seen in a generation.  But we need to make sure we’re reaching every child in America, not just those in states or districts that take part in Race to the Top.  And that’s why not only do we need to continue this competition we’ve got to open it up.  We’re letting local school districts apply.  (Applause.)  We’re going to let local school districts apply.

And that’s why we need to take the same bottom-up approach when it comes to reforming America’s most important education law, otherwise known as No Child Left Behind.  We have to reform No Child Left Behind.  (Applause.)