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Mr. Chairman, Senator Kennedy and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me today. I'm glad to hear last night was a false alarm, and everyone is okay. Mr. Chairman, at least, I heard you got the chance to spend some quality time with your grandson in the garage of the Russell building.

You and I have worked closely in our freshman year on the job, and I want to thank you and this committee for acting to provide relief to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

I also want to thank all of you for your recent work to increase the resources available to help low-income students afford college. The Academic Competitiveness and SMART grant programs build on the successful Pell Grant program. And they will encourage students to take more challenging courses and pursue subjects that are critical in the new global economy-science, technology, engineering, and math.

Most of you have probably seen the cover of Time this week-"Is America Flunking Science?" You can't pick up a newspaper or magazine these days without reading about global competitiveness, especially in math and science.

As you know, our children aren't growing up in the same world we grew up in. In the last century, America led a communications revolution that connected people around the world like never before. As a result, today, what you know means far more than where you live.

Last week, President Bush laid out a bold vision for keeping America competitive. And it begins with education.

The President's American Competitiveness Initiative will double the federal investment in science over the next decade to make sure we continue to lead the world in Nobel Prize winners. And it will encourage the private sector to make bold investments in research and innovation to produce the next big breakthrough. But to do all this, we must first give our students the skills to compete and lead in the global economy.

As President Bush said in the State of the Union, "We must continue to lead the world in human talent and creativity." The good news is there are certain things you can't teach in a classroom that our country already has-creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. We actually have the easier job. And that's to give our children the skills to compete.

Unfortunately, we are not where we need to be. Wherever I go, I hear from governors, business people, educators, and parents that our students aren't prepared. There's a wide and growing consensus on this issue in the country and in this chamber. I've heard from many from you, and I've seen the legislation you've introduced. Organizations from the National Academies to the Business Roundtable to the National Governors Association are all giving us the same message. 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 want to be auto mechanics or cancer researchers, they must have these skills.

Last week, I held parent roundtables in Orlando and Birmingham. The parents all said we need to help students see why math and science are relevant to their lives. I met one teacher in Birmingham who had that problem solved. Her students were comparing hair strands under a microscope as part of a mock crime investigation. It was CSI Birmingham, and I didn't see any students looking at the clock or asking why they had to learn math and science.

Math is becoming essential in fields ranging from advertising to consulting to media to policymaking. In my job, I like to say, "In God we trust-all others bring data."

In this fast changing economic landscape, our education system must keep pace. And on that front, we have a lot of work to do. Just one state-Alabama-requires students to take four years of math and science in high school. And as much as I hate to admit it, that gives Senator Sessions bragging rights over everyone here today, including me and my home state of Texas.

Meanwhile, 90 percent of the fastest-growing jobs require postsecondary education, and less than half of our students graduate from high school ready for college level math and science. Our 15-year-olds rank 24th out of 29 developed nations in math literacy and problem solving. And almost half of our 17-year-olds don't have the math skills to work as a production associate at a modern auto plant.

That's unacceptable. And we can't wait until students are 17 to address these problems. The competition starts in elementary school. The American Competitiveness Initiative will devote 380 million dollars to strengthen K-12 math and science education. Overall, the Department of Education will increase funding for our programs in these critical fields by 51 percent.

We must improve the way we teach math in our elementary schools. It's not just about helping younger students develop strong arithmetic skills; it's about planting the seeds of higher order thinking for later in life.

We need to do for math what we've done for reading by building a scientific-research base of classroom practices that are proven to work. The President has asked me to form a new National Math Panel that will bring together the top experts in the field to do this work. And the President's Math Now program for elementary school and middle school students will help bring this research to the classroom where it can help teachers and students.

This is urgent work, and we only have time to do what works. I know some of you have expressed concerns about resources, but the reality is the resources are there. We just have to invest more wisely.

Currently, 13 different government agencies spend about 2.8 billion dollars on 207 different programs for math and science education. These programs are all in their own little silos; and there's almost no coordination between them. It's a thousand flowers blooming and maybe a few weeds.

We should align these 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 power and research-base to do what's best for their students.

Four years ago, this committee helped drive the passage of No Child Left Behind. And thanks to your hard work, today we have policy levers and relationships with states that are working. No Child Left Behind is making a real difference, especially in the early grades. As you know, for example, reading scores for 9-year-olds have increased more over the last five years than in the previous 28.

Now we must build on the law's foundations to prepare students for more rigorous math and science coursework in high school. A key component of that is expanding the Advanced Placement [AP] Incentive Program. Just taking one or two AP courses increases a student's chance of graduating from college in four years. The College Board tells us that, based on PSAT scores, there are nearly a half million students who were ready for AP calculus last year but didn't take it or have access to it.

Unfortunately, many students, especially in lower-income communities, still don't have the opportunity to take these classes. More than a third of high schools across the country offer no AP classes. There's something wrong when right here in the nation's capital, suburban Langley High School in Fairfax County offers 21 AP courses-which is great-while inner-city Ballou High School here in the District offers but four.

With the way we ration these courses, you would think we don't want students to take them. And that needs to change, especially when we know that our students are going to need these skills to succeed in higher education and the work world.

Of course, schools can't offer advanced classes without qualified teachers to teach them. If you went to a hospital, you wouldn't ask an eye surgeon to set a broken bone. But right now, many teachers, especially in lower-income schools, are being asked to teach courses outside their fields of expertise. That's not fair to them, and it's not fair to our students.

That's why President Bush has called for preparing an additional 70,000 teachers to lead Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes in math and science. We also want to recruit 30,000 math and science professionals to become adjunct high school teachers. Imagine a NASA scientist teaching high school physics.

As a mom, I've heard all the excuses for why things can't be done... parents who say math is too stressful for their children... teachers who say students aren't ready for more advanced coursework... and 13-year-olds who are more than happy to agree and look for the easier course of study.

We must raise the bar.

A few weeks ago, Senator Isakson and I visited a math class in Atlanta. From the lesson plan, I thought it must have been a fifth or sixth grade class, but it was third graders doing higher-level critical thinking. And earlier this week, there was an article in The Washington Post about how more and more students in the DC suburbs are taking multivariable calculus in high school because they're learning algebra at a younger age.

If we raise our expectations, our students will rise to the challenge. As the President said in the State of the Union, "If we ensure that America's children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world." As leaders and policymakers, it's our job to look down the road and make sure our kids are prepared for the future. America has always been the most innovative society in the world, and together, we will make sure we always are.

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

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