U.S. Education Deputy Secretary Tony Miller, Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton, and Other Senior Education Officials to Visit Lexington, Ky., as Part of 2012 Cross-Country Back-to-School Bus Tour

As part of the U.S. Department of Education’s third annual back-to-school bus tour, on Thursday, Sept. 20 and Friday, Sept. 21, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton, and senior advisors Greg Darnieder and Jo Anderson will visit Lexington, Ky., for school events that will highlight education successes and engage communities in conversations about school reform, college affordability and completion, and the connection between education and jobs.

“America’s future is directly linked to the quality of education that we provide our children, young people and adults,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who will begin the tour on Wednesday, Sept. 12 in Redwood City, Calif. “It is the key to a vibrant middle class, strong national security and our global economic competitiveness.”

Secretary Duncan and his leadership team are crisscrossing the country from Sept. 12-21 for a series of events highlighting the theme that Education Drives America. Besides Lexington, some of the other stops include Sacramento, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Salt Lake City; Denver; Topeka, Kan.; St. Louis; Kansas City, Mo.; Evansville, Ind.; Charleston, W.Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Richmond, Va.; and Washington, D.C.

The visit to Lexington will kick off on Thursday, Sept. 20 with a number of events, outlined below: (Note: Exact times and locations will be announced soon.)

• Miller will visit Picadome Elementary School to discuss foreign language education during a classroom visit and a roundtable discussion with 15 local education and community stakeholders.
• Shelton, who also oversees the Department’s Office of Non-Public Education, will visit Sayre School – a private school that strongly utilizes technology – to talk about creating personalized learning environments and to discuss community partnerships between private and public schools.
• Shelton and Darnieder will visit the Berea College Promise Neighborhood in rural Kentucky to discuss building strong communities and schools, providing cradle-to-career support for children and youth, and transforming communities through the Promise Neighborhood model.
• Anderson will meet with Kentucky Education Association leaders at their Lexington office to discuss teacher effectiveness policies and issues.

In addition to the events above, Darnieder will lead a roundtable discussion on Friday, Sept. 21 on college access and affordability with students and other stakeholders at Berea College.

More specific details about the bus tour stop in Lexington, Ky., will become available as the time for the events draws closer. For live, up-to-the-minute updates from the road, follow the Education Drives America tour on Twitter using the hashtag #edtour12, or visit the Department’s bus tour blog. To receive media advisories, press releases, notifications about postings to the blog, and other special updates during the tour, subscribe to the Department’s Education Drives America e-mail updates by clicking here.