He called the failure of urban government schools "a great and continuing scandal."
Bush used the speech before the National Urban League convention to urge Congress to work out differences in the House and Senate education bills before summer recess. The two versions of the bill, stalled in conference committee, would mandate student-performance testing and teacher accountability.
"Our national debate has come a long way, but in the short distance we have left, there are some vital decisions to be made," he said.
"Our landmark education reform is now in what they call a conference committee. We're coming down to the wire. We've got to finish strong and make sure the accountability measures are right," Bush said.
Bush made his comments before the mostly black audience in a half-filled Washington Convention Center auditorium.
National Urban League is considered by some "kinder, gentler" than National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People. Earlier, Bush had declined an invitation to speak to NAACP, which ran an attack ad against him during the presidential campaign last year, and instead sent the group a videotaped message.
NUL supported the president's education package, though its leadership opposed Bush's proposal for school vouchers, which the Senate and House of Representatives later scrapped.
The Senate bill would provide $33 billion for elementary and secondary education in 2002, while the House bill would allow $24 billion. Money appears to be the sticking point for a final draft of the measure, with the two chambers of Congress billions of dollars apart on education spending.
The House would allow all government school jurisdictions to use up to 50 percent of federal funding without oversight, with about 100 districts being freed from federal funding limitations in exchange for higher test scores.
Both measures provide additional charter school funding and would set aside nearly $5 billion over the next five years to have every child reading by the third grade.
The next step will be for the House and Senate conferees to agree on a final bill that Bush will sign.
Bush prodded lawmakers to work quickly as the start of the coming school year is looming.
"The Congress has some work to do before we reach that goal, and the time is running short," he said. "We're now in August. In 35 days, school starts in New York City. In 34 days, schools open in Oakland, California. In Kansas City, Missouri, children report for class in 26 days.
"Principals and teachers need to make their plans for changes that will come immediately and for changes that will come next year."
NUL President Hugh B. Price told attendees that Bush "genuinely believes to the marrow of his bones that America must leave no child behind.''
In an interview with United Press International, Price said he agreed with Bush's proposal to test students annually to ensure their progress and end what Bush calls the discriminatory practice of social promotion.
"No child goes year after year without being tested in the classroom," Price said. "So the question is what kind of test, how many tests are there and what do you do with the test results?
"If you use the test results to say, 'We're just going to end social promotion and send everybody off to summer school where they got the same old lousy teaching they got during the school year,' that doesn't accomplish anything."
Bush in his speech called on Congress not to set impossible expectations, but rather to give reform efforts three years to work.
Bush had expected the bill to be passed in July, but with the congressional summer recess set to begin Monday, further legislative action on the legislation would likely be delayed until September.
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