U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today hailed the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education - the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that ended racial segregation in the nation's public schools -- calling the ruling one of the most important legal decisions in the history of the United States. Adam Chavarria, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, represented Secretary Paige in Phoenix today at the Magnet Traditional School to honor the school for its achievement gains with minority students. Deputy Assistant Secretary Ken Meyer represented Secretary Paige in Spokane, Wash., today at the Stevens Elementary School to honor the school for its achievement gains with low-income and minority students.

"Brown v. Board of Education gave every student in America a seat in the classroom," Secretary Paige said. "No Child Left Behind guarantees each of those students an education."

Fifty years later, an alarming achievement gap still exists in our country. Nationally, African American fourth graders are 28 percentage points behind their white counterparts in reading, and Hispanic fourth graders are 29 percentage points behind. President Bush has made closing the achievement gap a national priority.

"In the greatest country in the world, we have created two education systems -- separate and unequal," Paige said. "Some students are taught well while the rest -- mostly poor and mostly minority -- flounder or flunk out."

The No Child Left Behind Act is the bipartisan landmark education reform law designed to change the culture of America's schools by closing the achievement gap, offering more flexibility, giving parents more options and teaching students based on what works. Under the act's strong accountability provisions, states must describe how they will close the achievement gap and make sure all students, including those who are disadvantaged, achieve academic proficiency.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools are already demonstrating results -- a recent study by the Council of the Great City Schools found that the achievement gap in both reading and math in urban schools between African Americans and whites, and Hispanics and whites, is narrowing. In April, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis showed that Chicago public school children who transferred from schools in need of improvement to higher performing schools showed substantial improvements in reading and math scores.

President Bush's 2005 budget request increases No Child Left Behind funding to $24.8 billion. If enacted, federal spending on K-12 education programs will have increased 39 percent under President Bush.

More information about the No Child Left Behind Act is available at www.nochildleftbehind.gov/.

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