U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today issued the following statement:

"Nina Shokraii Rees has been an outstanding public servant, moving the ball forward toward the goal of a quality education for all Americans. As director of the Office of Innovation and Improvement, she was a catalyst for grassroots change and accountability-based reform. She worked to provide greater choices and opportunities for families, including the expansion of charter schools and Supplemental Educational Services. She fought hard for the nation's first federal school choice program, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, making the dream of a quality education a reality for thousands of schoolchildren. Nina also helped the schoolchildren victimized by last summer's hurricanes by channeling $20 million in charter school funds to speed their schools' recovery. Nina believes that a public education system should be responsive to the public. Her legacy will be found in the academic achievement of children once left behind."

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