 My fellow Americans, ever since our Commission on Excellence in Education came forth with its findings, you, the tax-paying citizens of this country, have been treated to a noisy debate about what to do. First, the Commission report made the point that, on the average, educational quality had deteriorated in recent years. Now make sure you remember that term on the average. Admittedly, there are schools, school districts, and even some parts of individual schools that have managed to maintain a high level of quality. Even the Commission pointed out a number of remedies which, if employed, would bring the average level up to the standard our children are entitled to. Many of the remedies would call for no increase in spending. Some admittedly would shift funding from less important things to things of greater educational value, and here and there there might be a need for more money. Basically, however, the Commission's thrust was one of making better use of resources we already have. All of what I've just pointed out was lost, however, in an explosion of voices. There were special interest voices that saw a chance to get more money for their particular cause. There were political voices that saw a campaign horse to ride. And there was demagoguery to help raise the noise level. In making the report public and discussing the matter of education cost, I was accused of being, quote, grotesquely inaccurate and outrageous, unquote. This seems to have been prompted by a statement that more was being spent on education than on national defense. I can only explain their hysteria by assuming that they were comparing federal spending on education to federal spending on defense. That, of course, is ridiculous. The federal government bears overwhelming responsibility for national defense. But it provides less than 10% of all education costs, which are and always have been a responsibility of the state and local governments. Since this hassle won't die down in 15 minutes, I thought you might like some real figures from the U.S. Department of Education. In the 82-83 school year, government at all levels spent $215.3 billion on education. The 1983 defense spending is $214.8 billion. Actually, that $215 billion for education doesn't include Department of Defense spending for remedial education or private corporation spending on employee education, all of which is estimated to be about $30 billion or more, nor does it include what parents spend on books, et cetera. One of the noisemakers wants the federal government to add $11 billion to federal education spending. Another demands $14 billion, and most of them accuses of whacking the budget down to a starvation level. The facts are the federal budget for education in 1980 was $14.1 billion. In 1981, which was still not our budget, it was $14.8 billion. Our first appropriation, the one for 1982, held the level for education at $14.8 billion, the same as in 1981. This year, we'll spend about $15.3 billion. Now, these are a lot of figures to absorb when you can only hear them and not see them. Let me see if I can simplify things. The cost per pupil has nearly doubled of 183.2 percent in 10 years. In the same 10 years, the number of pupils has dropped by 14 percent. Some distinguished members of Congress, I'll be kind and not name them, took me on for pointing out that the decline in educational quality seems to have begun shortly after the federal government started providing that less than 10 percent of the funding. What I had in mind was that the federal government began regulating and kibitzing a lot more than 10 percent, and maybe that contributed to the decline. Now, hang on, I have to resort to some numbers again. The federal funding boom began in 1960. The teacher-pupil ratio went from one teacher to 26 pupils, then to one teacher to 19 pupils in 1980. But the scholastic aptitude test scores of college-bound high school graduates dropped in that same period from 975 to 890. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but at least it raises a question as to whether more money is the, well, dare I use the term, quick fix for poor quality education. Already a great many educators and school boards and governors and state legislators who've read the commission's report are enthusiastically moving to implement it. The commission urged that we return to basics as requirements for a high school diploma. Four years of required English increased the number of years of required mathematics and science. Eliminate some of the frill, the snap courses so tempting to students when there are few, if any, compulsory courses. Make history a required course and the same for languages for the college-bound. Require more homework. These were a few of the commission's recommendations. Yes, they talked of something that could translate into more money, better pay for better teachers to attract the brightest and the best to choose teaching as a career. Do what is done in every other profession and business. Offer merit pay raises for those who earn and deserve them. The commission gave us a course to follow. It leads to better education for our sons and daughters. Let's ignore the noisemakers and set sail. Thanks for listening and God bless you. Saturday, June 25th is a special day for Germany and America. In the city of Krefeld on the shore of the Rhine, Vice President Bush represented all Americans at an historic celebration. It was from Krefeld that 300 years ago, the first German immigrants left for America. Those 13 Mennonite families came in search of religious freedom. They landed in Philadelphia and founded Germantown, Pennsylvania. From that moment on, Germany has contributed much to our way of life. Today, about one in four Americans or some 50 million of us claim at least partial German ancestry. What is this meant to America? The Conestoga Wagon, the Kentucky Rifle, Blue Jeans, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Snoopy. The first airtight tin can and many of our favorite beers. Dwight David Eisenhower and Werner von Braun, Chrysler Automobiles and Boeing Aircraft. German farmers introduced winter wheat to our Middle West and no Americans should forget that at Valley Forge, General von Stuben, a German volunteer turned George Washington's demoralized troops into a disciplined fighting force capable of winning our struggle for independence. Some of our most brilliant writers, like John Steinbeck and H. L. Menken, athletes such as Babe Ruth and Johnny Weismiller, inventors like Charles Steinmetz and George Westinghouse, statesmen such as Carl Scherz and George Schultz, our current Secretary of State, share German descent. For 300 years, Germans have helped to build America, but America has given as well as received. After the Second World War, when Germany lay defeated, America gave material help through the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift. Just as significant, if not more, we provided the inspiration to develop free institutions from the ruins of totalitarianism. Today, the Federal Republic is a bulwark of democracy in the heart of a divided Europe. It enjoys prosperity undreamt of in 1945 and its political system is stable and strong. West Germans and Americans are rightfully proud of our common values as well as our shared heritage. Today, we stand shoulder to shoulder in the NATO Alliance, defending freedom and preserving the peace. For three decades, the German-American partnership has been a linchpin of the Alliance. Thanks to it, a whole generation has grown up in Western Europe, free from the ravages of war and spared from the repression suffered by Europeans to the East. But with freedom comes responsibility, not least the responsibility to look beyond simplistic slogans to the truth on vital matters like security and arms reductions. I hope the younger generation, both in Germany and in America, will honestly consider all that we're doing to deter and to reduce the risks of war. In the face of a large Soviet military buildup of both conventional and nuclear weapons, the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany and our European allies have agreed to modernize our aging forces to assure an effective deterrent. At the same time, in hopes of averting the large expenditure to modernize weapons, we're making a serious effort to negotiate major and effectively verifiable reductions of Soviet and American nuclear forces to lower and more stable levels. In Geneva, we've made far-reaching proposals to reduce nuclear arsenals and to build trust. We have proposed the global elimination of the entire class of intermediate-range land-based missiles and expressed our willingness to agree to any proposal, equalizing the number of warheads on such U.S. and Soviet missiles. In the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, which we call START, I have within the last two weeks issued new instructions incorporating the recommendations of the Bipartisan Scowcroft Commission and giving our negotiators greater flexibility in their task. The young people of Germany and the United States should not doubt our dedication to maintaining the peace. We share with them the dream that someday the time will come when no nuclear weapons will exist anywhere on Earth. The ideals shared by our peoples, the desire for freedom and peace, bind the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany in so many ways. Building on this, we've launched a joint effort to provide more contacts between our nations and generations. In our country, 22 federal departments and agencies are participating in this effort. Plans range from traditional exchanges to an airlift program, which will bring German heart patients to one of our outstanding hospitals for bypass surgery and train more German doctors to perform these life-saving operations. This fall, a German will fly in NASA's Space Shuttle, the first foreigner to do so. Together, Germans and Americans will watch the flight's progress on their television screens, all praying for a successful mission and safe landing. Germans and Americans of German descent can take special pride in their ancestry, but all Americans have benefited from the contributions which German Americans have made to our country, and we should all participate in honoring this heritage. Thank you and God bless you.