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Skriven 2006-01-26 23:33:28 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0601263) for Thu, 2006 Jan 26
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks after a Visit to St. Bernard Unified School
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
January 26, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Remarks after a Visit to St. Bernard Unified School
St. Bernard Unified School
Chalmette, Louisiana



1:22 P.M. CST

MRS. BUSH: Well, we are here today in Louisiana to visit schools
specifically. Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education, is traveling with
me, and we just were in a school, a charter school in Algiers, Algiers
Charter School, that's up and going. And then, of course, we're here in St.
Bernard Parish at this one school where every student who has come back is
now housed. And we're seeing really what -- we heard some great stories
from students, but we're seeing what can happen when the few people who are
left work as hard as they do to start really renewing school.

And this school, fortunately, had a second floor. We heard the stories
about the people who stayed on the second floor for a week before they got
help during the flood, and how the people who were here saved people as
they came by in boats, or swam up to the second floor of the school.

As we drove in, we drove from the airport to Algiers, and then drove in
this way from there to here. We saw the whole scale of what the destruction
is, and I think still people around the country don't realize how huge it
is. We're going to go on to Mississippi, where we'll see very similar
sights. We'll visit a school there that's open, one of the schools that's
open in Mississippi.

But I want people around the country to realize how big the devastation is,
how important it is for people around the country to continue to volunteer,
to continue to send money to the Katrina fund or other funds of their
favorite charities that are working down here, because it's really
important for everybody in the United States to stand with the people on
the Gulf Coast as they rebuild.

I also want people to know here how discouraging I know it is to see what
we saw today, to know how long it's going to take to rebuild, to know how
long it's going to take just to rebuild the levees so that people will feel
safe enough to come back, to move back. But I also want people to know that
the government and the people of the United States are standing with you,
that we want people to be able to move back as fast as they can. We know
the schools are crucial to that. If schools are open, families can come
back. If communities can't get schools open, then it's really, really hard
for families to be able to move back.

We hope and we encourage families to make sure your children are in school.
Even if you're not yet back in your home district, make sure your children
are going to school wherever they are. But if we can provide schools, when
communities can provide schools, then children have a chance to go back to
live a normal life. And when children are taken care of, then parents feel
comfortable in being able to move back and try to rebuild their lives in
this community.

So thank you all, thanks for coming out to see us today. If you have
specific school questions, Secretary Spellings, of course, can answer
those. But I'll be glad to take questions, too.

Q Mrs. Bush, were you surprised by the lack of progress you've seen in some
of the areas?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I think every part of it is progress. I mean, this is
progress when you see here how the cafeteria was opened today, when you see
how this school is being rebuilt. I mean, each one of those steps are very
important. When you know how long the flood waters stood, how dispersed the
citizens are all over the country -- they've move everywhere -- how long
it's taken them to get back, really it hasn't been that long. And so the
progress is good. But I know it's discouraging to people to still have
debris everywhere. There's something about that that's very, very
discouraging.

But I want people to know they need to come on back, they need to get to
work trying to build. I know that a lot of businesses around here are
desperate for workers, and I know it's the same thing -- if they can have
schools for their kids and if they think they can find a place to live, or
rebuild their own houses, people will come back. I know the people want to
be back where they're from.

Every one of the kids that we talked to, they wanted to be here because
they wanted to be in St. Bernard's Parish, in their school. They didn't
want to be in school in Tennessee, even though they said people were really
nice to them there. But they wanted to come home.

Q The President has vowed to help rebuild this area, but this school was
rebuilt and reopened with no federal money.

MRS. BUSH: We've discussed that. We've already talked about that.

Q Any response?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I mean, federal dollars have to come here, and they will.
There's money through the Department of Education. And I expect that the
school will be reimbursed.

MS. VOITIER: Right. We're going through the paperwork now for the
reimbursement process, and we feel we'll be successful in securing those
funds.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: The Congress passed the $1.6 billion school aid
package just late in December, and on January 5th, the Department of
Education, before we counted noses or knew exactly where students were
finally settled, sent $100 million to Louisiana immediately. And by
February 1st, the count will come in and we will begin the process of
reimbursing schools for the expenditures they've made to reopen.

Q Mrs. Bush, you talked about a little bit about the people of this area.
What do you say to them? You say that the government is on their side, but
some people really don't feel like that. Just this week the White House
said no to the Baker bill that could have bailed a lot of people out here.
What do you say to those people who are just feeling that the government is
not on their side?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I know that's it's very, very slow. And of course, that's
how government always is. It's bureaucratic and it's slow to -- for
instance, the Congress had to appropriate the money for the schools, and
then the Education Department did disburse it quickly.

But there was money yesterday that was announced for Community Development
Block Grants, which states can use just like the Baker bill proposed. Once
states write their plans for how they want to use Community Block
Development money, they can start that out. And if they want to do what was
in the Baker bill, which was to buy out areas, they can write that in their
proposals for their Community Block Grants.

It takes a plan, and that's the really hard work. Your temptation is just
to throw your arms up and say, this just looks like too much work. And you
might have thought that. But you didn't. And you went to work, even though
there was not FEMA money yet. And this is where you are, after just really
a few months of devastation.

So it's really important for local people, for local officials, for state
officials to work as hard as you can, to meet with your community, to see
what your needs are, to draw out your plans that you want, and then to
access the federal money. And there is federal money. I think yesterday it
was $6.2 billion for Louisiana, and approximately a little over $5 billion
for Mississippi, for Community Block Grants, that sort of money that the
Baker bill proposed.

So once states really figure out either are our neighborhoods safe -- we
don't want people to move back until neighborhoods are safe. We want to
make sure the levees are safe. We want to make sure any runoff or debris
that make a site unsafe is removed. But at that point, we want people to
come home.

Q What do you plan to tell the President when you get back?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I'll tell him -- he knows, believe me, he knows. He's
briefed on the Gulf Coast almost every single day. He's been here a lot, as
you know. He was here last week. But I'm going to tell him what I see is
the courage of people that live here. And people here are solid as rocks.
And they want to be at home and they want to rebuild their homes. These
kids wanted to be at this school because they wanted to rebuild their
school. And they're on the front lines, really, of the rebuilding, because
they came back so early that none of this part of the building is finished.
But I'm encouraged, I really am.

And the other thing that's difficult is -- imagine, one little girl I met
left with her family, and her dad was missing for three weeks. I mean, she
found him and he was okay, but for three weeks she didn't know where her
dad was. So you can imagine the emotional trauma and the grief that
families are going through because they lost everything they had. It will
be slow, but I know it will happen.

Thanks, everybody. Thanks a lot.

END 1:33 P.M. CST

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