Let us strengthen our nation for the 21st century. Last year, from this podium, I said that education has to be our highest priority. Families all over America now can put their savings into new tax- free education IRAs. Because of the things that have been done, we can make college as universal in the 21st century as high school is today. We have opened wide the doors of the world's best system of higher education.
Parents have a right to know whether their children are mastering the basics.
Tonight, I propose the first ever national effort to reduce class size in the early grades. My balanced budget will help to hire 100,000 new teachers who have passed a state competency test. If I've got the math right, more teachers teaching smaller classes requires more classrooms. So I also propose a school construction tax cut to help communities modernize or build 5,000 schools. We must also demand greater accountability.