"There is absolutely a hunger in their system and a high degree of value for education and, in particular, in the stem fields, in math and science. I asked someone why that was so much a part of the culture and he said that there were constant reminders of poverty and class and that education is the way out."

		More Resources Secretary Spellings Visits India

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings held a press teleconference with reporters on April 17 to discuss her recent visit to India with a congressional delegation, led by Sen. Enzi. Following is the transcript of the conference call:

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Okay, thanks [inaudible] and thanks everybody.

Well, it was a wonderful trip and it was great to be able to accompany members of Congress along and we obviously had a chance to talk a lot about the competitiveness agenda generally and how it ought to manifest itself legislatively and such over here.

India is truly a land of contrasts, between just extreme, abject poverty and a lack of infrastructure and so forth, into these unbelievable high tech oases that really defy any kind of imagination. They're large. They're well maintained. They're the ultimate in technology and the human talent and human capital that works at these various facilities is just very, very impressive.

All across the board, I was struck—I heard a story at Texas Instruments about one of their leaders there who had actually spent some time here in the United States and, in particular, in the Dallas area. And he talked about how he has a driver. He's Indian and was born in India, educated there and here. His driver was driving him one day and he said, do you know why you're in the back seat and I'm in the front seat. The gentleman said, no, why? And he said, because you have an education and I don't and you've made the most of those opportunities that you've been provided.

There is absolutely a hunger in their system and a strong and high degree of value for education and, in particular, in the stem fields, in math and science. I mean, that is highly sought after and highly valued there. I asked someone why that was so much a part of the culture and he said that, there were kind of constant reminders of poverty and class and what—you know, that education is the way out.

Unlike many of us in our daily lives, you may or may not kind of regularly encounter and see the effect of poverty. That certainly is not the case in India. I found the people to be very, very friendly and humble and very appreciative of Americans and, in particular, in this time of our relationship, which has come of age, but also really bullish and optimistic about their future, which our State Department friend told me is more of a recent development. They're just very, very optimistic and bullish and confident about what's before then.

We, as Kevin said, had the opportunity to talk with the foreign secretary, who is kind of the equivalent of secretary of state, as well as officials with the Knowledge Commission that has been appointed by the Prime Minister as kind of a very comprehensive—when they say knowledge, they mean health care. They mean e-government. They mean infrastructure as well as education and kind of their ways to process kind of through the political arena some of the issues that are before them.

They are very proud of their—you know, being the largest democracy in the world and of their independence and as well as of their tolerance of all people. They obviously have a large Hindu population as well as Christian and Muslim. I think they are very proud of being a very diverse nation and a very peaceful nation.

Anyway, that is my top of the head thing. I'd be glad to answer any questions that you all may have. It was well worthwhile and very eye-opening.

MR. SULLIVAN: Okay, Janet, we will go to questions.

JANET: Okay, thank you.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 and please state your name and your affiliation. One moment, please.

Bob Askin[ph] from Bloomberg News, your line is open.

QUESTION: Thank you very much.

Secretary Spellings, in the President's [unintell] agenda here in the U. S. calls for a step, such as, more federal spending on R and D, tax breaks for R and D, more spending to get math and science teachers. Did you find in India that their government is doing any of those things and to what effect?

Thanks.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Yes, they talk about investing more heavily in education. There is a—they are having a big political issue around what they call—it's basically, you know, more to be akin to affirmative action in the United States. It is a reservation system and they have had on the books since, I think, the mid to late '50s a requirement that 27 percent of the underclass or the untouchables, OBC, as they are called there, are required to have the spots reserved in any kind of institution and there is a movement to raise that to 40 percent.

They lack capacity in their system to accommodate really untouchables as well as the elite. So, there is a lot of angst and political trauma going on at the moment about this issue. There is talk of investing more heavily in their education infrastructure to expand capacity so that they can wrestle with some of this stuff.

They also talked about, with respect to tax policy, particularly in the Bangalore area where they are quite entrepreneurial, these special economic zones, SEZs that sounded to me a lot like enterprise zones or things like that, that we have in the United States to attract business and attract investment. Most of the people that—most of the places we visited, Texas Instruments emphasis in particular, have large kind of educational programs that they offer to their employees, just as you would see in a big American employer as well.

So, they sort of have taken over some of the cost of education in the private system. They do talk about investing more heavily in education.

QUESTION: Can you still hear me?

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Yes.

QUESTION: One of the things I was wondering is the reason why there is this hunger for an India [sic]. I'm wondering to what degree it relates to some of the solutions we are looking at here in the U. S. or whether there are other factors in India that drive it and whether that might suggest that, here in the U. S., there might be other factors as well that might drive the push to more students into the stem field.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Well, I think they—you know, we have more capacity in our system to, quote-unquote, leave no child behind and to push the envelope at the high end than they do. So, I think they recognize that.

The other thing that we heard a lot of—and it is certainly an issue for the United States Government and for American institutions is the need to expand partnering and capacity between higher end institutions on both sides of the aisle. So that, there have been kind of limited opportunities for private providers like Phoenix University or public or private higher ed institutions to have educational offerings available to kind of meet some of these capacity needs. I would say that those certainly need to grow, but that there is some resistance, particularly at the federal level, much less so at the state governance or private sector level.

I think that is one of the major issues that we are going to have to wrangle through is are we going to be able to kind of export American higher education to allow more capacity to develop in their system, if that makes any sense.

QUESTION: Yes, thank you.

JANET: Ben [inaudible] from Associated Press, your line is open.

QUESTION: Hi, good morning, Secretary.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Hey, Ben.

QUESTION: Hey, I was wondering if you came away with anything that you would consider to be a really tangible and even urgent idea, something that you might take to Congress and say, we really need to act on this as a nation or, perhaps, a way that somehow you change regulation at the department, a concrete idea that this trip reinforced for you?

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Well, I think and I think the senators would say this also. It's certainly affirming kind of policy things that we need to do and that we have recommended and that there is a lot of consensus around, both from the National Academy's report, the President's initiative and so on and so forth. That is kind of the whole [unintell] pipeline as well as our need to continue to invest in R and D. So, I think it was highly affirming for that.

In addition to that—and Karen Hughs and I have been talking about this. There certainly—I think there is a need to make higher ed institutions more aware and have them go see and, hopefully, expand the opportunities and the capacity stuff that I just spoke about a second ago. So, one of the ideas that we talked about is leading a delegation of particularly land grant institutions, because their needs are so acute in agriculture and, obviously, those sorts of sciences as maybe the first kind of go to place.

I mean, our land grant institutions in this—I think—well, I'll get to that in a second. Our land grant institutions obviously were founded around the notion that, through extension services, the opportunity and capacity, water, food, et cetera, would be available everywhere. I think they think that is an enviable model and really maybe it is kind of the first place to go to engender higher ed institutional partnership between us and them that would be really a winner on both sides.

QUESTION: So, when you say talk about leading a delegation—I'm sorry—do you mean having folks go over as you did here or—

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Yes, I mean like a, you know, some number, some land grant university presidents to go, be led by the U. S. Government folks to—the ministers, the government officials as well as people in Indian higher education, in particular, work on these agricultural issues and capacity building that we know a good bit about here through our land grant institutions.

QUESTION: Okay, thank you.

JANET: [Inaudible] from National Journal, your line is open.

QUESTION: Secretary Spellings, did you see anything that made you worry about America's ability to remain competitive against India?

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: One thing—and I'll say this as much as a, you know, mom of a teenager who is 13. It is just sort of kind of the way we take our opportunities and our system for granted and maybe, you know, a lack of a sense of urgency and this is certainly reflected in the polls of parents who think American high school education in math and science opportunities there are just fine and kind of a reluctance to encourage their kids to pursue stem fields, I mean, all of the things we have recently in some polling data that the business community largely has done.

But kind of a lack of fire in the belly here that you see very strongly over there, motivation.

JANET: [Inaudible] Aurora[ph] of United News of India, your line is open.

QUESTION: Yes, good morning, the Secretary.

I was wondering how you would like to promote partners between the U. S. and Indian higher education institutions?

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Well, as I said, I think one idea that we talked about this with the Foreign Secretary as well is the need—you know, like maybe a first step would be to lead a delegation of presidents of land grant, U. S. land grant institutions to go and meet with officials of the Indian Government, whether they be in education or in the agricultural arena as well as in Indian higher education. Both from a management perspective, there are very strong, as you know, management institutions as well as high tech and science.

QUESTION: Would it be a collaborative effort?

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Yes.

[Pause]

JANET: At this time, I'm showing no further questions, but as a reminder, please press star 1.

[Pause]

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Okay, everybody, thanks for taking time this morning.

MR. SULLIVAN: Thanks, everybody.

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: 'Bye-'bye.

JANET: Thank you.

That will conclude today's conference.

[END OF TELECONFERENCE]

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