Thank you all for being here to discuss an important set of issues on the future of the Western Hemisphere. I'm spending a lot of time talking about these issues lately.

I joined Secretary Gutierrez at his Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta last month, and I'm proud to announce that I'll be traveling to Latin America next month with a delegation of U.S. college and university presidents who represent the diversity of American higher education.

While in Chile and Brazil, we'll discuss student exchanges and other pressing educational issues. We hope to further extend the warm ties and spirit of cooperation that have been a hallmark of relations between the U.S. and Latin America for a long time.

It is in that spirit of cooperation and hope for the future of our region that we gather today. As you know, the theme of this conference is "Advancing the Cause of Social Justice in the Americas." The most basic meaning of social justice is, giving everyone an opportunity to succeed.

There are few tools that give an individual the chance to succeed like education does. As President Bush says, education is the new civil right. It is not the only solution to advancing social justice and prosperity in our region, but it is an essential foundation.

We have an excellent panel lined up today to talk about "Investing in Education":

• Dr. Liliana Montenegro will talk about her work as National Coordinator for the Center for Excellence in Teacher Training in the Dominican Republic
• Gary Delice will talk about education in Haiti and HELP scholarships
• Linda Louise Claflin will discuss how Junior Achievement Worldwide helps prepare students for the 21st century
• Luis Javier Castro will discuss how education can help tackle poverty in Costa Rica

The Western Hemisphere has always been a region of great promise—and our common history and values have made our nations natural partners.

The 21st century has been no exception. We have seen strong economic growth in the region—bolstered by partners who believe in the power of free markets and democracy—and we have seen hopeful signs in education as well.

For example, literacy rates among 15 to 24 year olds in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean are 96 percent, and college enrollment rates in the hemisphere have increased significantly since 1999—from 30 to 35 percent.

But big challenges persist. One in four people in Latin America live on less than $2 a day, and many children don't finish grade school.

The people of our hemisphere expect and deserve better. As President Bush has said, there has been a revolution in expectations. It must begin with education. The children of our region will not be prepared to succeed in this new century if they cannot read, write, add, and subtract.

Here in the U.S., we are demanding more from our education system through our landmark law, No Child Left Behind. The basic premise is that we need every student to succeed. Where not long ago we focused our attention on inputs, we are now focused on the outputs—getting results for students.

That means having research-based approaches to instruction; holding schools accountable; measuring student progress and reporting the results; and emphasizing effective teaching.

Other nations in our region are making similar moves towards more accountable school systems. Nations like Mexico, Colombia, and Chile in particular are receiving high marks for the quality of their assessment systems. Countries like Brazil are establishing measurable standards, and proposals in Chile could make it easier for policy makers to make changes at underperforming schools.

The U.S. government is working to help our neighbors. Over the past three years, we have provided more than $200 million for education programs in the region. Including:

• A successful program in Guatemala that has raised the percentage of students graduating from first grade from 51 to 71 percent
• A program in Peru that helps rural schools and local governments improve school management and learning, and has doubled the number of students achieving proficiency in basic skills from 30% to 60%
• Centers for Excellence for teaching training across Latin America and the Caribbean. They have trained nearly 15,000 teachers serving half a million disadvantaged students. We hope to train 20,000 teachers and reach 650,000 students by 2009.

Our panelist, Liliana Montenegro, is a partner in this program, so we'll hear more from her shortly...

In March, the President announced a new partnership that will provide $75 million over the next three years to help Latin American youth learn English and have the opportunity to study in the U.S.

And we can do much more together. There are many areas that are fertile for partnership, like math and science instruction, foreign language learning, and higher education. The more our students, teachers, policy makers, businesses, and NGOs share, the more rapidly our nations can put these lessons to good use—empowering citizens to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century.

I want to turn it over to our panelists now, so we can learn from their experiences and insights into improving opportunities for students in our hemisphere.

And now Tom Farrell will introduce the first panelist...

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