On behalf of Pennsylvania's parents and children, I am pleased to accept your recommendations to move ahead with clear, common-sense, rigorous, academic standards for our public schools. Parents want to know what the schools expect of their children. We all want to hold schools, teachers and students accountable for achieving those results. These standards will raise the bar of achievement to a level of excellence for our schools and our students that is necessary for us to become a leader among state and a competitor among nations. I've often said, there's no hope, no future, no opportunity for Pennsylvania's students without the foundation of a quality, rigorous education.
Education is the ultimate tool of personal empowerment.
There is no substitute for a quality education and the sooner we realize this simple fact, the sooner we will achieve our goals. Educational achievement is not simply matching Pennsylvania's fourth grade test scores with students all over the world. It's about how those students perform every year in every grade in their pursuit of personal excellence. It's how well equipped they will be to succeed in a demanding job market, achieve success and become a life time learner. It's how well prepared they will be to provide for a promising and family sustaining future.