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All right. Mr. Chairman, Senator Kennedy and members of the committee, I'm gratified for the opportunity to appear this morning before you as President Bush's nominee to be secretary of Education. There is no more important obligation each of us has to the American people than to educate our citizens. In our diverse country we share the belief that education is the great equalizer. It is the key to success for individual Americans and the key to the success of our nation. Not just economic success but civic and democratic success. In our country we believe that a great education must be available to each and every American. It is in that spirit that I am honored and humbled to be nominated to this post and I am most grateful to President Bush for asking me to serve our country and our children in this important way.

I am further gratified to be the first order of business before this reorganized Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and I congratulate you, Senator Enzi, on your chairmanship. I've have the opportunity to work with members and staff of this committee under the able leadership of Senator Gregg and Senator Kennedy with whom I worked on No Child Left Behind, and I am grateful to them as well. I appreciate very much the kind remarks of Senator Cornyn. I'm sorry Senator Hutchison could not be here as well. I am proud to be represented by them in this body, and I have known both of them for many years.

I too want to thank Secretary Rod Paige who has given his life in service to children. There is no more passionate advocate for leaving no child behind than Secretary Paige.

He has laid the foundation for improving education and if confirmed, I will work to honor his lifelong commitment to children by continuing the good work he started. As I mentioned a minute ago, my family is with me. My husband Robert and my daughters, Mary and Grace. As you all know well, public service is a commitment for families and I love mine dearly for their sacrifices on my behalf.

I have been involved in our public schools for more than two decades and in many different ways. I am a parent of school-aged children, one in private school and one in a public school. I have worked in public education as a policy wonk and as a legislative advocate. I have worked in both the legislative and executive branches of government as well as at the local, state and federal levels. From parent to policymaker, I have seen public education from many angles and often been in the other person's shoes. As a proprietor of shoe stores, Mr. Chairman I know you will appreciate that.

In short, in two decades in public education I have learned two main lessons. First, I have learned that every player in education has an important and rightful place. Those involved in education are people of goodwill who mean to serve children. There is plenty to do and we must respect the role we each play. In other words, not everybody should do everything. That was not always the case.

In the early and mid-1980s, we focused on fixes and fads with little attention to results for kids. At the state level, we dictated who could play in the game on Friday night. We created career ladders for teachers. We established school councils, and on and on. We looked at averages and felt satisfied and complacent about the needs of individual children, especially poor and minority children. By the mid-1990s, the tide was beginning to turn.

Through the implementation of sound data gathering and analysis, through standards and assessment, through enhanced accountability, we gained clarity of purpose and a clarity of roles and responsibilities that is now getting results for children in schools. Second, I have learned specifically about the appropriate role for each of us who work on behalf of students. In other words, what should we all do. Parents must be active participants in a child's education. They deserve information about their child's school, they deserve to know who is teaching their child, and they deserve options when their schools are not serving their children.

Teachers, those loving adults who work with our children day to day, must have the support and tools necessary to teach all children. They deserve curricula, based on the best research science has to offer about how best to teach. They deserve to know how their students are doing and who needs help with what. They deserve to teach in safe schools and orderly classrooms, and they deserve our deepest gratitude and utmost professional respect.

Principals, superintendents, and schools boards, as leaders and managers of our schools, need data to evaluate programs and practices, and to know what students and teachers need. They need resources aligned with priorities and results. They need to know what is working outside their communities as well as within them. State policymakers who typically devote more than half their state budgets to education expect that the students in their state will be prepared to compete in our country and the world. They need flexibility to meet the needs of their unique states and communities, and they need to be trusted to do right by their students.

Federal officials like us have a responsibility to set strategic goals and provide resources aligned to these goals to ensure that our nation is preparing our students to compete in the global economy. We must assist states in holding our schools accountable for the education of every child, and promote access to high quality education to all students, irrespective of economic status, geography or disability. We must foster the sharing of best practices and commission the resource to keep our education system moving forward.

This new governance paradigm, which is the foundation upon which the No Child Left Behind Act is built, is working for children across the land. We are investing resources and calling for results. In states all over our country, like in Maryland, Georgia, New Mexico and Minnesota, children are scoring higher on state reading and math tests, and the achievement gap between African-American, Hispanic and low-income students and their white peers is beginning to close.

We have laid the foundation and now we must take the necessary next steps in three key areas. First, we must do so politically. There is no more important example of real bipartisanship in this Congress or in this administration than our work together on education. The recent enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as well as No Child Left Behind are proof that education is an area where we can truly come together. IDEA passed this body by unanimous consent, and NCLB passed by a vote of 87 to 10.

Do we agree on everything? Of course we don't, and we won't. But if confirmed, I pledge to do all I can on behalf of the president to work with you to continue the spirit of bipartisanship that has been built. When we do so, we serve children by enacting policies and programs in their interest, and we model how governments should work. I am committed to be a part of that lesson in good government for America's students.

Second, we must build on the policy foundation that has been laid in NCLB. The focus of the act was establishing an accountability framework for schools. We called for annual assessment in grades three through eight, and called for attention to each student and each student group. It was largely focused on elementary and middle schools, and it gave special attention to the importance of reading. All were necessary and right. With only 67 of every 100 ninth graders graduating from high school on time, and with the United States lagging behind in math, as recently reported in the Program for International Student Assessment study, or PISA, we must turn our attention to high schools and to math or science.

President Bush has called for additional resources to help middle and high school students who have fallen behind in reading or mother. To ensure that high school principals and faculty have the data they need to improve instruction, the president has called for extending assessments to grades three through 11, and for a high school intervention initiative which focuses on reading skills in the critical ninth grade year. We must also focus on the needs of adult learners. Of those 100 ninth graders I just spoke about, only 26 will still be in college in their sophomore year, in a day in time when the fastest growing jobs require at least that level of education.

In this area, the president has called for additional resources for community colleges and other institutions to implement dual enrollment programs and ease student transfers. The president has also called on Congress to integrate a rigorous academic program for students in career and technology programs. With our authorization for the Higher Education Act, the Workforce Investment Act, and the Carl Perkins Act, which funds vocational education, we have a great opportunity to meet the needs of older students and adults to help them compete and succeed in our evermore competitive world.

We must address the issues of affordability and accessibility by increasing resources for Pell Grants and revamping the student aid system to better meet the needs of today's college students, who- thirds of whom are non-traditional students.

Finally, we must work together to improve the process of implement this new law. No Child Left Behind is transforming our system of education. We must listen to states and localities, to parents and reformers about their experience with the act. We must stay true to the sound principles of leaving no child behind, but we in the administration must engage with those closest to children to imbed these principles in a sensible and workable way.

I know there are many other areas of interest and concern to all of us, from charters to choice, from funding to families. My time today does not allow me to delve into all I would like. I would simply say, as we confront other policy areas together, we should do so in a way that supports the policies we have put in place in No Child Left Behind. In fact, we will celebrate the third anniversary of NCLB just two days from now. This law set in motion a historic transformation of American education that says every child matters and every child can learn. We have begun that journey together, and if confirmed, I pledge to continue to travel that road with you to work alongside you to fulfill the promise of our great nation to each and every citizen.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I appreciate very much the courtesy I've been shown by you and your staff.

I look forward to listening to you, getting to know you better, and working together on behalf of America's children. I'd be pleased to respond to your questions.

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