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After a week of speculation and contention, the White House on Monday released the text of an address that President Obama plans to make today to the nation's schoolchildren.
Beamed into classrooms at noon via webcast or C-SPAN, the speech will urge students to study hard, stay in school and develop their talents so they can grow up and help solve the country's problems.
"If you don't do that — if you quit on school — you are not just quitting on yourself, you are quitting on the country,'' the text reads.
Last week, Jim Greer, head of Florida's Republican Party, warned that Obama might use the speech to spread his "socialist agenda.''
That helped fuel a nationwide furor as conservative talk show hosts and bloggers urged parents to keep their children home.
But the 15- to 20-minute speech, delivered from a Virginia high school, steers clear of hot-button issues like health care, stimulus spending or foreign policy.
In television news interviews Monday, Greer said he had reviewed the speech and found nothing objectionable in it, though he suspects the administration tinkered with its message after the controversy erupted.
Greer said he plans to let his own kids watch the speech.
Former first lady Laura Bush on Monday also expressed support for Obama's decision to speak to kids. "There's a place for the president of the United States to talk to schoolchildren and encourage schoolchildren" to stay in school, she told CNN.
Local school officials also thought the speech was appropriate.
"I don't believe it was either a Democratic or Republican message,'' Pinellas school superintendent Julie Janssen said Monday after reading the text. "I thought it was very clear, telling them to stay in school and overcome adversity.''
Obama shares some personal history in the speech, such as getting up at 4:30 in the morning so his mother could drill him with extra lessons.
Mainly he exhorts students to do well.
"We can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world — and none of it will matter unless you fulfill your responsibilities,'' he says.
The closest he gets to political rhetoric is at the end, when Obama says he is working hard to fix up classrooms and to get students the best books, computers and equipment he can.
Tampa Bay area school boards received dozens, if not hundreds, of calls and e-mails last week from parents worried about what the speech might say. Many questioned suggested study materials put out by the White House.
Even after reading his remarks on Monday, some parents still thought it was inappropriate for a national politician to address students.
"I'm not going to expose my kids to things they don't know about being handed down from the federal government,'' Karen Koplin, mother of two at Garrison-Jones Elementary School in Dunedin, said Monday.
"I don't think it's the president's job to address students. That's what I'm for. That's what my husband is for. That's what teachers are for.''
In an e-mail Thursday to Pinellas school officials, Koplin called the speech "pure political propaganda.''
After reading the text Monday, she did not find anything specifically objectionable. But she still worried about precedent.
What if, she asked, Obama gives another speech in six months? "He could say "I spoke to you in September about education and I'm speaking now about health care,' Who knows? It's just a foot in the door and I don't like it.''
Palm Harbor resident Winnie Bayon has two children in middle school and one in high school. Regardless of the speech's text, she said, related classroom discussions make her uneasy.
"We know that the majority of teachers are primarily liberal and they don't exactly hide their feelings,'' Bayon said Monday. "This gives the teacher a forum and it just opens up potential political debate in classrooms. I don't trust that those teachers will necessarily allow constructive debate.''
The speech is not mandatory in any of the schools. Teachers and principals can show it or not show it, depending on how it fits with curriculum.
School officials in all Tampa Bay area counties are setting up alternative activities for children whose parents do not want them listening to the speech.
In Hernando County, students must have a permission slip signed by a parent to watch. In Pinellas County, students can get an excused absence if they wish to stay home. Hillsborough and Pasco parents will have to let school officials know if they want their children to "opt out'' of the speech and receive alternative instruction.
By Friday, Pinellas schools had received 50 or so e-mails, Janssen said, and some supported the airing of the speech. "That's not bad out of 104,000 students,'' she said.
St. Petersburg resident Lauren Berns read the text and deemed it "inspiring.''
Berns, who has four children in Pinellas schools, has no beef with parents who might want their children to opt out. But the text confirms that Greer's "socialist agenda'' warning was nonsense, Berns said.
"It was completely unwarranted and unfounded,'' Berns said. "I even question whether it was made in good faith.''
Stephen Nohlgren can be reached at nohlgren@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8442.
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