U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings released the following statement today in response to Tapping America's Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative, a report released by a coalition of prominent business organizations:

America has long been the world's leader in science and technology, and we are working to keep it that way. I commend the Business Roundtable and its partners for identifying the challenge and recognizing the urgent need to address it. We agree that the solution must begin in our nation's schools.

The call to double the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates with bachelors' degrees by 2015 is a worthy goal—and a realistic one, if we make the right choices. The key to achieving this goal is to increase our K-12 pipeline by improving our high schools. The U.S. Department of Education will continue to work closely with the business community, educators, parents and children to bring high standards and accountability to all American schools.

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