Interview of the President by Mort Kondracke

Just a couple of other issues, then I'll answer your questions. The education -- the No Child Left Behind bill is a success. It was a bipartisan legislative success, but more importantly, it is a success because it enables us to measure. And when you measure you can herald success, which I did in the speech. But it enables you to more likely address failure, which I did in the speech. And the Pell Grant for Kids Initiative is a tie-in to the accountability system in No Child Left Behind, because if you don't measure it, you have no earthly idea of whether a kid is trapped in a failed school.

And the idea is to provide parents flexibility when it comes to their schools. Pell Grants for Kids will trigger after AYP, annual yearly progress is not met. If you notice I said, liberate from failing schools.

The other important point that I was making in the speech is that one of the true assets of America is the parochial school system and other non-public schools, particularly in inner-city America. And if you look, for example, just at one aspect of these non-public schools -- look at the Catholic schools, they provide a great service to America, a quality education at low cost. And yet if you look at the number of classrooms that are shutting down across the country, you can't help but say there is an asset that is slowly but surly leaving the American scene -- which is not good for the country.

And so the Pell Grants for Kids not only enhances the accountability in the No Child Left Behind Act, but also provides hopefully an opportunity for these important institutions of learning to be able to get a second wind and to stop the process of these assets being shut down.

Q The Democrats will see "voucher" in this.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, my question to them would be, do you see voucher in the Pell Grant for somebody going to Notre Dame, or any other non-public school. And so it's -- first of all, I think that's a very important initiative. It's an idea that may be labeled one thing or the other, but they can't ignore the fact that there are poor children trapped in schools that aren't changing. And then the question to all Americans is, is that good for the country? And the answer is, it's not.

As you noticed, I mentioned the D.C. scholarship program, which is a forerunner of this expanded program, and I've strongly urged Congress to pass this. It's a very important initiative. And it ties into No Child Left Behind. I understand No Child has been politicized, but what can't be denied is that accountability is the touchstone to reform. And accountability is the way to make sure minority students aren't shuffled through the system.

Q Are you willing to address their objections that NCLB has never been fully funded?

THE PRESIDENT: We're funding to it the best we can. But I would remind them that most of the funding in public education comes from state government, and that's where it should be. If you're saying, through the NCLB, we want to know, but you chart the path to excellence, and if it's not working, you change; in other words, we want to make sure accountability and responsibility are aligned properly. And that's at the local level.

See, one of the concerns from the right is that No Child Left Behind undermines local control of schools. It doesn't -- it enhances local control of schools. But the best way to -- and so therefore, we'll do the best we can from a budgetary perspective and have increased Title I funding. But the funding issue should not be an excuse to undermine the fundamental reform inherent in No Child Left Behind, which is that we will measure disaggregate results, post the scores, and demand change when there's failure.

Q Can I ask you a couple of legacy kind of questions?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, go ahead.