U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today issued the following statement regarding New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's decision to end social promotion in the city's public schools:

"I congratulate the Mayor for his leadership and his concern for the children of his great city. Social promotion is not good for children and I am glad he is addressing this issue.

"Our goal is to ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn and to reach their full potential. If students are having difficulty in school, the earlier we can catch the problem, the better the chance we have to help them. To continually push forward children who are falling behind and then push them out of the schools without the academic skills they need to succeed in life is grossly unfair to those students who most need our help.

"We support districts' efforts to curtail the practice of social promotion by identifying early those children who are having difficulty meeting the learning standards for their grade and providing them with extra help. I applaud Mayor Bloomberg's and Chancellor Klein's desire to help these at-risk children in New York City and will be very interested in the specifics of the plan as it is developed."

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