Following are remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, as prepared for delivery, to a Washington, D.C., press conference on the future possibilities of Western Governors University's teacher preparation program, saying it "harnesses the power of the Internet to make anytime, anywhere learning a possibility for teachers."

I want to welcome you all this morning and thank Utah's great governor, Mike Leavitt, along with Bob Mendenhall, the president and CEO of the Western Governors University, for making the trip out here to our nation's capital.

We're glad you're here, because we've got some important news to tell about something that's been a dream of yours, Governor, for a long time. Further proof that persistence really does pay.

On Sept. 10, 2001, the Department of Education awarded $10 million to the Western Governors University to help create a Teachers College to provide accredited, online degrees and certificates to K-12 teachers and prospective teachers.

The next day, the world as we knew it changed forever. But your focus on education and this important project, Governor Leavitt, did not change. And today we're here to launch the WGU online Teachers College. This is a college that teaches what you need to know, wherever and whenever you want to learn it.

And it's a real tribute to the Western Governors Association--which is on the forefront of providing teacher instruction that is strong in content and quality.

As we work to leave no child behind, we are also working to meet the highly qualified teachers challenge.

• By the end of 2006, all teachers of core academic subjects must be highly qualified.
• In order to reach this goal, we're all going to need to do things differently. We're going to need to be innovative.

To achieve our goal of a quality teacher in every classroom, we need to do two things:

• Raise academic standards for new teachers, so they are prepared to teach our children to high levels, and
• Remove the barriers that are keeping thousands of talented people out of the classroom.

Western Governors University's Teachers College addresses both.

• It maintains very rigorous standards for teachers, and ensures that they demonstrate their true competency--not just that they've sat through a number of required courses.
• And it provides an innovative option for individuals who would be turned off by the hoops and hurdles of a traditional teacher preparation and certification programs. It harnesses the power of the Internet to make anytime, anywhere learning a possibility for teachers.

Think of the implications. Right now, a soldier stationed in Kuwait but nearing retirement can go online to Western Governors University and take the courses to become a teacher. Once he or she is stateside again, he could hook up with Troops to Teachers, another Department program, to find a high-need school where he can serve again.

This will also help states with rural districts enable their paraprofessionals to get the education they need to be highly qualified. Remote villages in Alaska have paraprofessionals who need education but have no access to local universities.

Because of programs like this, adults like these can save time and money and find reasonable routes into the classroom. Without them, we could risk losing a precious national resource: dedicated Americans willing to give back to our children.

This program is just getting off the ground, but I see a world of promise ahead of it. I'm proud our Department has played an important role in its creation.

Now I'll turn it over to our deputy secretary of education, Bill Hansen.

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