Administration will continue to encourage meaningful accountability, including closure of low-performing charter schools and replication of advances and reforms made at high-performing charter schools.
In order to win the global competition for new jobs and industries, we must win the global competition to educate our children. At their best, charter schools provide us with an opportunity to meet this challenge and produce the next generation of great American leaders.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 1 through May 7, 2011, as National Charter School Week. I commend our Nation's charter schools, teachers, and administrators, and I call on States and communities to support charter schools and the students they serve.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.
BARACK OBAMA
Proclamation 8665 of April 29, 2011
Law Day, U.S.A., 2011
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
At the core of our Nation's values is our faith in the ideals of equality and justice under law. It is a belief embedded in our most cherished documents, and honored by President Eisenhower when he established Law Day in 1958 as "a day of national dedication to the principles of government under law." Each Law Day, we uphold our commitment to the rule of law and celebrate its protection of the freedoms we enjoy.
This year, we pay tribute to one of America's Founders and our second President, John Adams. As a young attorney in colonial Massachusetts, John Adams was asked to represent a British officer and eight British soldiers charged with firing into a crowd and killing five men in the Boston Massacre. In the face of mass public outcry and at great personal risk, he accepted the case and showed the world that America is a nation of laws and that a fair trial is the right of all people.
President Adams' legacy of dedication to fairness and the rights of the accused has been carried forward by members of the legal profession for more than two centuries. It is championed by those who represent the accused and exemplified by women and men who are devoted to securing equal rights for all, both in America and around the world.
On this Law Day, I encourage all Americans to celebrate and reflect upon the example left to us by President John Adams and our centuries of adherence to the rule of law. In so doing, we help ensure future generations will inherit and promote the ideals that help move our Nation forward.
49
