PRESS CONFERENCE WITH PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA AND VICE PRESIDENT- ELECT JOE BIDENSUBJECT: NOMINATION OF ARNE DUNCAN, CHICAGOPUBLIC SCHOOLS, FOR SECRETARY OF EDUCATIONDODGE RENAISSANCE ACADEMY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS11:38 A.M. EST, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2008

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: Over the past few weeks, Vice President- electBiden and I have announced key members of our economic team. And they areworking, as we speak, to craft a recovery program that will save and createmillions of new jobs and grow our struggling economy. But we know that in thelong run, the path to jobs and growth begins right here, in America's schools, inAmerica's classrooms.So today, we're pleased to announce the leader of our education team, whose work will be critical to these efforts, our nominee for secretary of Education and myfriend, Arne Duncan.In the next few years, the decisions we make, about how to educate our children,will shape our future for generations to come. They will determine not just whether our children have the chance to fulfill their God-given potential or whether or workers have the chance to build a better life for their families but whether we as anation will remain, in the 21st century, the kind of global economic leader that wewere in the 20th.Because at a time when companies can plant jobs wherever there's an Internetconnection, and two-thirds of all new jobs require a higher education or advancedtraining, if we want to outcompete the world tomorrow, then we're going to have toouteducate the world today.Unfortunately when our high school dropout rate is one of the highest, in theindustrialized world, when a third of all 4th graders can't do basic math, whenmore and more Americans are getting priced out of attending college, we're fallingfar short of that goal.For years, we've talked our education problems to death in Washington. But we'vefailed to act, stuck in the same tired debates that have stymied our progress and leftschools and parents to fend for themselves -- Democrat versus Republican,vouchers versus the status quo, more money versus more reform -- all along failingto acknowledge that both sides have good ideas and good intentions.We can't continue like this. It's morally unacceptable for our children andeconomically untenable for America.

We need a new vision for the 21st century education system, one where we aren't just supporting existing schools but spurring innovation; where we're not justinvesting more money but demanding more reform; where parents takeresponsibility for their children's success; where we're recruiting, retaining andrewarding an army of new teachers; where we hold our schools, teachers andgovernment accountable for results; and where we expect all our children not onlyto graduate high school, but to graduate from college and to get a good paying job.These are precisely the goals to which Arne Duncan has devoted his life, from hisdays back in college, tutoring children here in Chicago, to his work at the helm of anon-profit remaking schools on the South Side to his time working for the ChicagoPublic Schools, where he became chief executive officer of this city's schoolsystem.When it comes to school reform, Arne is the most hands-on of hands-on practitioners. For Arne, school reform isn't just a theory in a book; it's the cause of his life. And the results aren't just about test scores or statistics, but about whether our children are developing the skills they need to compete with any worker in theworld for any job.When faced with tough decisions, Arne doesn't blink. He's not beholden to any oneideology, and he doesn't hesitate for one minute to do what needs to be done. He'sworked tirelessly to improve teacher quality, increasing the number of master teachers who've completed a rigorous national certification process from just 11 to just shy of 1,200, rewarding school leaders and teachers for gains in studentachievement.He's championed good charter schools, even when it was controversial. He's shutdown failing schools and replaced their entire staffs, even when it was unpopular.This school right here, Dodge Renaissance Academy, is a perfect example. Sincethis school was revamped and reopened in 2003, the number of students meetingstate standards has more than tripled.In just seven years, Arne's boosted elementary test scores here in Chicago from 38 percent of students meeting the standards to 67 percent. The dropout rate has gonedown every year he's been in charge. And on the ACT, the gains of Chicagostudents have been twice as big as those for students in the rest of the state.So when Arne speaks to -- to educators across America, it won't be from up insome ivory tower, but from the lessons he's learned during his years changing our schools from the bottom up. I remember a conversation we had about one of thoselessons a while back. We were talking about how he'd managed to increase thenumber of kids taking and passing AP courses in Chicago over the last few years.And he told me that in the end, the kids weren't any smarter than they were threeyears ago; our expectations for them were just higher.

Well, I think it's time that we raised expectations for our kids all across this countryand built schools that meet and exceed those expectations.As the husband and brother of educators, the vice president-elect and I know thiswon't be easy. We've seen how hard Jill and Maya work every day.And we know it's going to take all of us, working together, because in the end,responsibility for our children's success doesn't start in Washington, it starts in our homes and our families. No education policy can replace a parent who makes sure a child gets to school ontime, or helps with homework and attends those parent-teacher conferences. Nogovernment program can turn off the TV or put away the video games and read toa child at night.We all need to be part of the solution. We all have a stake in the future of our children.I'll never forget my first visit to this very school several years ago, when one of theteachers here told me about what she called "These Kids Syndrome" -- our willingness to find a million excuses for why "these kids" can't learn, how "thesekids" come from tough neighborhoods, or "these kids" have fallen too far behind."When I hear that term, it drives me nuts," the teacher told me. "They're not `these'kids, they're our kids."I can't think of a better way to sum up Arne's approach to education reform. Withhis leadership, I'm confident that together, we will bring our education system andour economy into the 21st century and give all our kids the chance to succeed.I'm going to ask Joe to say something briefly, and then we'll have Arne come up.PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN: Thank you, Mr. President-elect.Congratulations, Arne.My mom has an expression -- and you-all are tired of hearing me say this allthrough the last couple years -- that children tend to become that which you expectof them. Children tend to become that which you expect of them. These kids, Mr.President (sic), are the kite strings that lift our national ambitions aloft. These kidsare, as you said, our kids.And Arne Duncan, as the secretary of Education, is going to expect a great deal of our children and, I expect, Arne, maybe of our parents, as well. And that's a reallyvery, very good thing because if our children are going to succeed, if our economyis going to thrive, we have to have an education system that's second to none in theworld. That's the only way our children and our nation are going to be able tocompete in today's global economy.