Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My fellow Ministers, distinguished delegates and guests.

It is a pleasure to be back in Mexico City, the site of my first international trip as Secretary of Education. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to return. I thank President Fox and the people of this great city for their gracious hospitality.

This is my first opportunity to meet many of you since the last Ministerial was soon after the September 11th attacks on the United States. So I welcome this chance to meet many of you and to share our work and progress.

As Secretary Tamez's fine remarks made clear yesterday, we have much to talk about. Our countries share common challenges in this new century. Because we are a Hemisphere that is not only rich in diversity but also ideas, we are all rising to those challenges we face.

President Fox said yesterday morning that he is emphasizing equity, quality, and evaluation. Providing a certified quality education to every child in the Hemisphere is one of our greatest challenges. And that's a big job. But it will be accomplished. Accomplished in order to provide a brighter future for our children and for future generations of children.

Our countries' Presidents acknowledged the importance of our work during the Quebec Summit of the Americas in 2001. In their Plan of Action they wrote: "Recognizing that education is the key to strengthening democratic institutions, promoting the development of human potential, equality and understanding among our peoples... it is essential that quality education is available to all."

This has also been rightly reinforced in the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

Like I said, this is no small task. We in the United States are struggling with this issue as well. Fortunate for us, our leader—President Bush—came into office with a plan. He has made it our number one goal—to ensure that every child in our schools is educated with no child left behind. Not just some, but all children—regardless of family income, ethnicity, language or disability. Every single child.

President Bush said at the Quebec Summit: "We're committed to making education a centerpiece of our economic agenda, because learning and literacy are the foundations for development and democracy."

We want all of our schools to be places of high expectations and high standards. And I'd like to take a few minutes to tell you a little about what we're doing to achieve this goal.

When President Bush took office, he knew the United States faced urgent education challenges: despite increased spending on education in recent decades, student achievement has remained flat. Most important, there was a huge achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their better-off peers.

Our 2000 National Assessment of Education Progress on reading showed that 2/3 of our fourth-graders couldn't read proficiently. Sadly, most of those were minority children and those living in poverty. In that same year, the assessment for math showed that 75 percent of our fourth- and eighth-graders performed below a level considered proficient.

When President Bush took office, he said this is unacceptable. Education is a civil right—just like the right to vote or be treated equally. So he proposed—and our Congress passed—the —No Child Left Behind Act of 2001—historic reforms that are transforming education in the United States.

This law's primary goal is to close the achievement gap. It's stated right on the cover of the law. And the way our new No Child Left Behind law accomplishes that is by insisting on accountability.

We are insisting that teachers know deeply the subjects they teach. Unfortunately today, many educators in our country are teaching subjects for which they are not qualified. A physics teacher may be teaching math. A physical education teacher may be teaching social studies. Now, I respect physical education teachers. In fact, I coached sports and taught physical education in college once myself. But that teacher should not be teaching history unless he or she knows the content deeply.

Our new education law insists that parents have options if their children aren't learning. When a school is not succeeding, we help that school. But if schools do not improve, then parents have options. They can choose one-on-one tutoring, after-school help, or they can enroll their children in a higher-performing school.

Our new education reforms require a whole new focus. It's all about what's best for the child, and what will help the child learn, not the system. For that reason, No Child Left Behind insists that schools use instruction methods that work. For the first time ever in the United States, we are applying the same rigorous standards to education research as are applied to medical research, and other fields where lives are at stake.

We are also insisting that children in our schools learn early the fundamental skill upon which all others are based: Reading. President Bush has set the goal that every child learns to read by third grade. No excuses. And he made sure we got the funding and the support to get the job done. He knows what you and I know: Reading is the foundation of all learning. And so we are working to ensure that every child in our schools learns to read early.

We now have excellent research that shows us how children learn to read, and what teaching methods work best. We are insisting that programs that receive federal funds use those methods. We are asking a lot of our schools and of our states that are working hard to implement these new education reforms. But President Bush is making sure there's support and resources to get the job done.

Despite all of the priorities competing for our tax dollars, President Bush has continued to invest historic levels of funding in education—targeted to areas of greatest need. His latest budget calls for an increase in education funding of over 25 percent compared to when he first took office. Still, we know that money alone is not the only solution.

We are focused on the result of this investment. In education, the result that matters is student learning. This law insists on accountability for results through frequent assessment. For the first time in the history of our country, all fifty states have plans in place to show how they will be accountable for student achievement. Each state will test all students every year, in grades 3 through 8, so that we know whether our students are making progress. And we expect all students to make progress, not just some groups.

Tests that are aligned with high standards, clear objectives, and a rigorous curriculum are our best tool for identifying where students and schools are succeeding. Tests are also the best way to identify who needs help—and where we need to focus more resources.

We also face the challenge of serving students who live in areas where schools are few and far between. Forty-three percent of our public schools—that teach one-third of all our nation's school children—are in rural areas.

As we focus on addressing our challenges at home, we also seek to learn from and work with our partners in the Hemisphere and around the world. As you know, last September, President Bush announced the intention of the United States to rejoin UNESCO and help in its mission to advance human rights, tolerance and learning.

Since then, the Department of Education has assumed a broader international role, working with partners in other countries on initiatives of common benefit, and providing leadership on education issues in appropriate international forums and settings.

We are also working to do a better job in our schools teaching international languages and helping children in primary and secondary schools learn about other cultures and traditions outside our borders. In our world today, fluency in languages other than our own is more important than ever. There is a lot we can do together to improve education in the Americas.

To help increase the number of highly-qualified teachers throughout the Hemisphere, President Bush launched a $20 million public-private partnership initiative to establish regional Centers of Excellence for Teacher Training. The first three centers—located in Peru, Jamaica, and Honduras—are already open. It's expected that, by the end of 2004, these centers will have prepared 4,000 teachers for the classroom.

The United States participates in teacher exchange activities with countries in the region, and our country benefits from the teachers we receive, who often teach in our dual-language immersion programs for English language learners and in our regular foreign language classrooms.

Teachers from other countries bring with them, not only the richness of their language and culture, but a wealth of methods that strengthen the way we teach the 5 million children in our public schools whose first language is not English.

We also recognize that our schools have an important role to play in shaping our children today into the citizens they will become tomorrow. Just as important as mastery of reading, math and science is the mastery of the self. Students need to learn good values to become good citizens of the world—values like love your neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. Don't lie, cheat or steal. Give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Respect others and respect their opinions. And take responsibility for what you say and do.

And part of taking responsibility is fully participating as a citizen in a free democracy—giving back to the community, volunteering to help others, working to make neighborhoods a better place for everyone to live and work and pursue their dreams.

The nations of our Hemisphere reaffirmed their commitment to democracy in September 2001, when they adopted the Inter-American Democratic Charter. My department is working with the Organization of American States and partner organizations to promote civics education in schools throughout Latin America.

The program—called "CIVITAS Latin America"—also helps our children in the United States to learn more about how democracies work, by studying the experiences of countries of Latin America. It is another example of how our work together benefits us all.

I could go on, but I think these are good examples of some of the things we are doing to ensure that every child is educated and no child is left behind. I know many of you have innovative projects underway to improve education as well.

Right here in this country, Mexico uses satellite technology to deliver educational services to remote areas and to otherwise expand access. I understand that many communities in the United States also benefit from access to these broadcasts.

In addition, the OAS Education Portal of the Americas—which provides online teacher training throughout the hemisphere—is a new and far-reaching U.S.-sponsored initiative which will now link up with Mexico's EDUSAT.

Chile has inaugurated a program to provide assistance to lower performing schools in the country—the ones that most need the extra help and support. By assessing the achievement of students, Chile is able to direct special attention to the schools that most need it.

Nicaragua created a Model Schools initiative to improve access to high-quality primary education by promoting modern teaching methods and community support for schools.

A program in El Salvador identifies extremely gifted children in schools at every income level, in every neighborhood, and provides extra tutoring at universities over the weekends for these students.

These are just a few programs. I know there are more. We can learn from others efforts. And I'm grateful for this opportunity to sit and listen to your ideas. Working together, we can make a huge difference for the Hemisphere, for our children and our common future.

The peoples of our various nations have entrusted us with the responsibility of leading the region to higher ground educationally. On this great trust, we cannot fail.

Thank you very much.

God bless all of you and God bless the Americas.

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