Second, to have the best schools, we must have the best teachers.  Most of us in this chamber would not be here tonight without the help of those teachers.  I know that I wouldn’t be here.

For years many of our educators, led by North Carolina’s governor, Jim Hunt, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, have worked very hard to establish nationally accepted credentials for excellence in teaching.

Just 500 of these teachers have been certified since 1995.  My budget will enable 100,000 more to seek national certification as master teachers.  We should reward and recognize our best teachers.  And as we reward them, we should quickly and fairly remove those few who don’t measure up, and we should challenge more of our finest young people to consider teaching as a career.

Third, we must do more to help all our children read.  Forty percent—­40 percent—­of our 8-year-olds cannot read on their own.  That’s why we have just launched the America Reads initiative, to build a citizen army of one million volunteer tutors to make sure every child can read independently by the end of the 3rd grade.  We will use thousands of AmeriCorps volunteers to mobilize this citizen army.  We want at least 100,000 college students to help.

And tonight I’m pleased that 60 college presidents have answered my call, pledging that thousands of their work-study students will serve for one year as reading tutors.

This is also a challenge to every teacher and every principal.

You must use these tutors to help your students read.  And it is especially a challenge to our parents.  You must read with your children every night.

This leads to the fourth principle:  Learning begins in the first days of life.  Scientists are now discovering how young children develop emotionally and intellectually from their very first days and how important it is for parents to begin immediately talking, singing, even reading to their infants.  The first lady has spent years writing about this issue, studying it.  And she and I are going to convene a White House conference on early learning and the brain this spring to explore how parents and educators can best use these startling new findings.

We already know we should start teaching children before they start school.  That’s why this balanced budget expands Head Start to one million children by 2002.  And that is why the vice president and Mrs. Gore will host their annual family conference this June on what we can do to make sure that parents are an active part of their children’s learning all the way through school.

They’ve done a great deal to highlight the importance of family in our life, and now they’re turning their attention to getting more parents involved in their children’s learning all the way through school.  I thank you, Mr. Vice President, and I thank you especially, Tipper, for what you’re doing.

Fifth, every state should give parents the power to choose the right public school for their children.  Their right to choose will foster competition and innovation that can make public schools better.  We should also make it possible for more parents and teachers to start charter schools, schools that set and meet the highest standards and exist only as long as they do.