And so I think we need to fund testing early in the high school systems, and to help students fix problems like we're doing in elementary school and high schools.

The goals of this country is to enhance prosperity and peace.

But we want an education system to educate every child. And here's our vision of how it's done. First, you must have leadership that sets high standards. It's amazing what happens when you have low standards. Guess what happens. You get low results. It's what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. If you don't have high standards, you get lousy results, particularly in some neighborhoods. And that's unacceptable to a person like Lynn Swann and me.

Community colleges are practical. They design curriculum that meets the needs of today's world.

And it recognizes that we have got to educate our children — now! — for the skill sets necessary for tomorrow. And this is a better place — there's no better place to talk about that — and there is no better place to talk about that right here at Parkland Magnet Middle School for Aerospace Technology. Thanks for letting us come by. God bless.

The tests show we're fine in the fourth grade in math, and we're okay in eighth grade. They start to slip up prior to going to high school. That is the time to intervene in a child's academic career to make sure he or she has that skill set necessary to become the mathematicians or the scientists or the engineers by the time they get out of college.

We need to apply the same rigor of No Child Left Behind, particularly in middle age for math and science, to make sure that we're able to compete for the jobs of the 21st century.

Laura and I's spirits are uplifted any time we go to a school that's working, because we understand the importance of public education in the future of our country.

And the best place to start is to make sure every child can read and write and add and subtract. And so that was the spirit behind proposing the No Child Left Behind Act. And as I mentioned, there was a lot of non-partisan cooperation — kind of a rare thing in Washington. But it made sense when it come to public schools.