Margaret Spellings

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Margaret Spellings
8th United States Secretary of Education
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 20, 2005
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Rod Paige
Born	December 30, 1957 (1957-12-30) (age 50) Michigan
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	University of Houston

Margaret Spellings (born Margaret Dudar on November 30, 1957) is the current Secretary of Education under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and was previously Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to President Bush. She was one of the principal authors of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act that aimed at reforming primary and secondary education. In 2005, she convened a Commission on the Future of Higher Education to recommend reform at the post-secondary level. She is married to Robert Spellings, who practices law in Washington, DC and has lobbied for the adoption of school vouchers in Texas.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Secretary of Education 2.1 Opposition to "Postcards from Buster" television episode 2.2 No Child Left Behind 2.3 Controversy overseeing student loan programs 2.4 Commission on the Future of Higher Education 3 Media appearances 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early life

Margaret Spellings was born in Michigan and moved with her family to Houston when she was in the third grade. Spellings graduated from Sharpstown High School in 1975.^[1]

Margaret Spellings earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Houston in 1979 and worked in an education reform commission under Texas Governor William P. Clements and as associate executive director for the Texas Association of School Boards. Before her appointment to George W. Bush's presidential administration, Spellings was the political director for Bush's first gubernatorial campaign in 1994, and later became a senior advisor to Bush during his term as Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

[edit] Secretary of Education

Following Rod Paige's departure as Secretary of Education, despite the fact that she had never been a teacher or school administrator, Spellings was nominated to the post of the Secretary of Education by George W. Bush on November 17, 2004,^[2] confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 20, 2005, which also marked the beginning of Bush's second presidential term,^[3] and sworn in on January 31 the same year.^[4]

[edit] Opposition to "Postcards from Buster" television episode

On January 26, 2005, between being confirmed and sworn in as the eighth Education Secretary, Spellings sent a letter to the head of PBS condemning an episode of the show Postcards From Buster that featured "Buster the Bunny" visiting Vermont and interacting with the children of a lesbian couple. The mostly live-action show focuses on real children and in this episode the two women are never mentioned as being lesbians. Spellings criticized the use of government funds to produce the episode saying "many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode."^[5]

Openly gay U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) publicly criticized Spellings in a letter regarding her "degrading comments": "You have said that families should not have to deal with the reality of the existence of same-sex couples, and the strong implication is that this is something from which young children should be shielded."^[6] PBS decided not to distribute the episode, although independent PBS stations have opted to air it.

[edit] No Child Left Behind

In April 2005, on PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, she called Connecticut's resistance to the No Child Left Behind Act the "soft bigotry of low expectations." According to the program's transcript, she said:

"I think it's regrettable, frankly, when the achievement gap between African-American and Anglo kids in Connecticut is quite large. And I think it's unfortunate for those families and those students that they are trying to find a loophole to get out of the law as opposed to attending to the needs of those kids," Spellings said.

"That’s the notion, the soft bigotry of low expectations, as the president calls it, that No Child Left Behind rejects."

In actuality, the suit resulted from the federal government forcing states to spend state dollars on extra tests, which Connecticut regarded as unfunded mandates which the law specifically prohibits.

In a January 2007 speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Spellings claimed, "Everybody here knows that before this act became law, kids often moved from grade to grade, and nobody knew whether or not they had learned to read, write, add, or subtract. We invested billions of dollars and basically just hoped for the best. The lack of accountability helped create an achievement gap where poor and minority students lagged far behind their peers. Not once in all my travels have I met a parent who didn't want their child learning on grade level now—let alone by 2014. I know I do, and I'm sure every parent in this room agrees."

[edit] Controversy overseeing student loan programs

On Thursday, May 10, 2007, Spellings testified before the House Education and Labor Committee responding to criticism from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that the Education Department had been "asleep at the switch" in overseeing student loan programs, allowing corruption and conflicts of interest to spread.^[7]. Spellings has further gone on record to say that she is disregarding the suggestion by the Inspector General to hold the loan companies accountable for their graft.^[8]

[edit] Commission on the Future of Higher Education

In September, 2005, Spellings announced the formation of the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which has also been referred to as the Spellings Commission.^[9] The commission was charged with recommending a national strategy for reforming post-secondary education, with a particular focus on how well colleges and universities were preparing students for the 21st-century workplace. It had a secondary focus on how well high schools were preparing students for post-secondary education. Spellings described the work of the commission as a natural extension into higher education of the reforms carried out under No Child Left Behind, and is quoted as saying: "It's time we turn this elephant around and upside down and take a look at it."^[10]

[edit] Media appearances

• Spellings appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy! (episode airing November 21, 2006). She was the first Cabinet member and first American politician to appear as a contestant on the show. She came in second with a score of $11,100, losing to actor Michael McKean's $38,800.^[11]

• She has been the only active member of the Bush Administration to appear on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, as of her appearance on May 22, 2007.^[12] She also appeared on The Colbert Report on July 22, 2008.^[13]

• She appeared over the phone on NPR's News Quiz Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on March 8, 2008.^[14]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• U.S Department of Education Biography
• Margaret Spellings's Motivational Commencement Speech
• The Commission on the Future of Higher Education's home page
• Doug Lederman, "The Secretary Offers a Preview," Inside Higher Ed September 8, 2006
• Secretary Spellings' Remarks on the Fifth Anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act
• Gerald Bracey's Huffington Post article, Margaret Spellings: An Argument for Abolishing the Federal Department of Education
• Opposing view: One approach can't fit all By John Strassburger, USA today

Government offices
Preceded by Roderick Paige	United States Secretary of Education Served Under: George W. Bush 2005 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Order of precedence
Preceded by Samuel W. Bodman	United States Presidential Line of Succession 14th in line	Succeeded by James Peake
Order of precedence in the United States of America
Preceded by Samuel Bodman United States Secretary of Energy	United States order of precedence United States Secretary of Education	Succeeded by James Peake United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs

v • d • e United States Secretaries of Education Hufstedler • Bell • Bennett • Cavazos • Alexander • Riley • Paige • Spellings

v • d • e Current members of the United States Cabinet Bodman · Boltenc · Bushc · Chao · Cheneyc · Chertoff · Gates · Gutierrez · Johnsonc · Kempthorne · Leavitt · Mukasey · Paulson · Peake · Peters · Preston · Nusslec · Rice · Schafer · Schwabc · Spellings · Waltersc (c) cabinet-level only, (a) acting

v • d • e Cabinet of President George W. Bush (2001 – present) Vice President Dick Cheney (2001 – present) Secretary of State Colin Powell (2001 – 2005) • Condoleezza Rice (2005 – present) Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill (2001 – 2002) • John Snow (2002 – 2006) • Henry Paulson (2006 – present) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (2001 – 2006) • Robert Gates (2006 – present) Attorney General John Ashcroft (2001 – 2005) • Alberto Gonzales (2005 – 2007) • Michael Mukasey (2007 – present) Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton (2001 – 2006) • Dirk Kempthorne (2006 – present) Secretary of the Agriculture Ann Veneman (2001 – 2005) • Mike Johanns (2005 – 2007) • Ed Schafer (2008 – present) Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans (2001 – 2005) • Carlos Gutierrez (2005 – present) Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao (2001 – present) Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson (2001 – 2005) • Mike Leavitt (2005 – present) Secretary of Education Rod Paige (2001 – 2005) • Margaret Spellings (2005 – Present) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez (2001 – 2003) • Alphonso Jackson (2003 – 2008) • Steve Preston (2008 – present) Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta (2001 – 2006) • Mary Peters (2006 – present) Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham (2001 – 2005) • Samuel Bodman (2005 – present) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi (2001 – 2005) • Jim Nicholson (2005 – 2007) • James Peake (2007 – present) Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (2003 – 2005) • Michael Chertoff (2005 – present) Chief of Staff Andrew Card (2001 – 2006) • Joshua Bolten (2006 – present) Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Christine Todd Whitman (2001 – 2003) • Mike Leavitt (2003 – 2005) • Stephen Johnson (2005 – present) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mitch Daniels (2001 – 2003) • Joshua Bolten (2003 – 2006) • Rob Portman (2006 – 2007) • Jim Nussle (2007 – present) Director of National Drug Control Policy John Walters (2001 – present)

Persondata
NAME	Spellings, Margaret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dunbar, Margaret
SHORT DESCRIPTION	8th United States Secretary of Education
DATE OF BIRTH	November 30, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH	Michigan, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH