U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings testified today before the House Committee on Science. Following is her prepared testimony:

Mr. Chairman, Congressman Gordon and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me today. I'd first like to congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, on 24 years of service to this Congress and the American people. I hope that whatever you do next we won't lose your strong voice on improving American competitiveness.

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the President's Competitiveness agenda today with a Committee that has been a leading advocate to ensure that America remains the world leader in innovation and research. While testifying before this Committee is a departure from my normal Hill appearances, I think it underscores the need to rely on government-wide resources if we are going to give our students the skills to compete, work and lead in the global economy. And I've no doubt, the House Education Committee could benefit from hearing from some of my fellow colleagues here on the panel.

As all of you know, our children aren't growing up in the same world we grew up in. You can't pick up a newspaper or magazine these days without reading about global competitiveness, especially in math and science.

While we're sleeping every night, accountants in India do our taxes. Radiologists in Australia read our CAT scans. And technicians in China build our computers. In a recent Newsweek, there's even a cartoon poking fun at outsourcing NCAA office brackets!

As other nations race to catch up, there is mounting evidence that American students are falling behind. I know all of you have heard the numbers, but they bear repeating. Currently, our 15-year-olds rank 24th out of 29 developed nations in math literacy and problem solving. Almost half of our 17-year-olds don't have the math skills to work as a production associate at a modern auto plant.

We know that 90 percent of the fastest-growing jobs require postsecondary education, and yet less than half of our students graduate from high school ready for college level math and science. Every year about a million students drop out of high school and nearly 5 out of 10 African American and Hispanic 9th graders don't graduate from high school on time.

Wherever I go, I hear from governors, business people, educators, and parents that our students aren't prepared. I've heard the same from many of you. And if we are going to move in a new, positive direction—we must make our high schools more rigorous and encourage students to take more advanced math and science classes.

Employers today need workers with "pocket protector" skills—creative problem-solvers with strong math and science backgrounds. Whether children and adults want to be auto mechanics or cancer researchers, they must have these skills.

The President's American Competitiveness Initiative will devote $380 million to strengthen K-12 math and science education. It will build on the success of No Child Left Behind and increase academic rigor across the board. Overall, the Department of Education will increase funding for our programs in these critical areas by 51 percent.

The President has called for the formation of a National Math Panel—a coalition of experts to help us identify the best research on proven strategies to teach math. And his budget also includes $250 million for a new Math Now initiative that will give elementary and middle school students the academic foundation necessary to succeed in rigorous math classes in high school, such as Advanced Placement courses.

Our challenge today is that nearly forty percent of high schools offer no AP classes. And that must change ... especially when we know that just taking one or two AP courses increases a student's chance of graduating from college on time. The President has called for $122 million to prepare 70,000 teachers to lead AP and International Baccalaureate classes in math, science, and critical foreign languages. The budget also includes $25 million to help recruit 30,000 math and science professionals to become adjunct high school teachers in these critical areas.

This is urgent work, and we only have time to do what works. As policymakers, we must focus on results. We've looked at data to see what policies are most effective for students and where we can save taxpayers money or operate more efficiently by eliminating and consolidating programs that aren't getting results for our students.

According to the GAO, 13 different government agencies, including yours and mine, spend about $2.8 billion on 207 different programs for math and science education—almost half of them receive $1 million or less. These programs are in their own silos with little or no coordination between them or linkage to No Child Left Behind's goals of raising student achievement for all students. It's a thousand flowers blooming and maybe even a few weeds throughout the government.

We need to ask ourselves some pointed questions. What are our goals for these programs? Do we have a consensus on what those goals should be? Are those goals aligned with state standards?

Who is our client? Are we spending millions to train teachers who already possess a strong science knowledge base? Or are we reaching the teachers who need the training? Do we want these programs to produce an educated workforce? More Nobel Prize Winners? Both? And, at the end of the day, is student achievement on the rise as a result?

Congress created the American Competitiveness Council, which I chair, to answer questions like these and align our efforts around shared, strategic goals. At the beginning of March, the President and I led the first meeting to begin the process of evaluating how well these math and science programs are working and improve coordination between them.

We must align all our efforts with the principles of No Child Left Behind—by continuing to hold schools accountable for getting all students to grade level in reading and math by 2014 and by giving local policymakers and educators the resources, authority, and research-base to do what's best. And it's not just for reading and math... we'll have science assessments in place by 2007, and the President has called for them to be a part of the accountability system.

As leaders and policymakers—as parents—it's our job to look down the road and make sure our kids are prepared for the future. As the President said, "If we ensure that America's children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world."

And if we raise our expectations, our students will rise to the challenge.

Thank you, and I'd be happy to answer your questions.

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