We passed welfare reform.  All of you know I believe we were right to do it.  But no one can walk out of this chamber with a clear conscience unless you are prepared to finish the job.

And we must join together to do something else, too, something both Republican and Democratic governors have asked us to do:  to restore basic health and disability benefits when misfortune strikes immigrants who came to this country legally, who work hard, pay taxes, and obey the law.  To do otherwise is simply unworthy of a great nation of immigrants.

Now, looking ahead, the greatest step of all, the high threshold to the future we must now cross, and my number one priority for the next four years, is to ensure that all Americans have the best education in the world.  Thank you.

Let’s work together to meet these three goals:  every eight-year-old must be able to read, every 12-year-old must be able to log on to the Internet, every 18-year-old must be able to go to college, and every adult American must be able to keep on learning for a lifetime.

My balanced budget makes an unprecedented commitment to these goals—­$51 billion next year—­but far more than money is required.  I have a plan, a call to action for American education based on these 10 principles: 

First, a national crusade for education standards—­not federal government standards, but national standards, representing what all our students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.  Every state and school must shape the curriculum to reflect these standards and train teachers to lift students up to them.  To help schools meet the standards and measure their progress, we will lead an effort over the next two years to develop national tests of student achievement in reading and math.

Tonight I issue a challenge to the nation.  Every state should adopt high national standards, and by 1999, every state should test every 4th grader in reading and every 8th grader in math to make sure these standards are met.

Raising standards will not be easy, and some of our children will not be able to meet them at first.  The point is not to put our children down, but to lift them up.  Good tests will show us who needs help, what changes in teaching to make, and which schools need to improve.  They can help us end social promotion, for no child should move from grade school to junior high or junior high to high school until he or she is ready.

Last month our secretary of education, Dick Riley, and I visited northern Illinois, where 8th grade students from 20 school districts, in a project aptly called First in the World, took the third International Math and Science Study.

That’s a test that reflects the world-class standards our children must meet for the new era.  And those students in Illinois tied for first in the world in science and came in second in math.  Two of them, Kristen Tanner and Chris Getsla, are here tonight along with their teacher, Sue Winski.  They’re up there with the first lady, and they prove that when we aim high and challenge our students, they will be the best in the world.  Let’s give them a hand.  Stand up, please.