Margaret Spellings

Margaret Spellings
8th United States Secretary of Education
In office January 20, 2005 – January 20, 2009
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Rod Paige
Succeeded by	Arne Duncan
Domestic Policy Adviser
In office 2001–2005
President	George W. Bush
Succeeded by	Claude Allen
Personal details
Born	November 30, 1957 (1957-11-30) (age 53) Michigan
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	University of Houston

Margaret Spellings (born November 30, 1957) was the Secretary of Education from 2005-2009 under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and previously served as White House Domestic Policy Adviser to President George W. Bush.

She was one of the principal proponents 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. Since leaving this role, Spellings has founded Margaret Spellings & Company, an education consulting firm in Washington, D.C.,^[1] and is a senior advisor to the Boston Consulting Group.^[2]

Early life

Margaret Spellings, born Margaret Dudar on November 30, 1957 in Michigan, moved with her family to Houston when she was in the third grade. Spellings graduated from Sharpstown High School in 1975.^[3]

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.

Secretary of Education

Following Rod Paige's departure as Secretary of Education, Spellings was nominated to the post of the Secretary of Education by George W. Bush on November 17, 2004,^[4] confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 20, 2005, which also marked the beginning of Bush's second presidential term,^[5] and sworn in on January 31 the same year.^[6] She is the second female Secretary of Education.

No Child Left Behind

Spellings delivers a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; former first lady Nancy Reagan is seated at the right.

In April 2005, on PBS's 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,^[7] 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. That’s the notion, the soft bigotry of low expectations, as the president calls it, that No Child Left Behind rejects.

”

In a January 2007 speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Spellings said,

“

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.[citation needed]

”

Controversy overseeing student loan programs

On 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.^[8] 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 gaffe.^[9]

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.^[10] 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."^[11]

Media appearances

• Spellings appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy! (episode airing November 21, 2006). She was the first sitting Cabinet member 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.^[12]

• She was 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.^[13] She also appeared on The Colbert Report on July 22, 2008.^[14]

• She appeared over the phone on NPR's News Quiz Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on March 8, 2008.^[15]

References

1. ^ Fox News (2009). Ex-Bush Team Acclimates to Private Life. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
2. ^ The Boston Consulting Group (2009). Former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings Named Senior Advisor to The Boston Consulting Group. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
3. ^ Houston Independent School District^{[dead link]}
4. ^ "Bush Taps Spellings For Education". CBS News. Associated Press. 2004-11-17. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/17/politics/main656209.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-26. 
5. ^ "Rice confirmation vote delayed". CNN. 2005-01-20. http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/20/rice.confirmation/index.html. Retrieved 2008-07-26. 
6. ^ "Spellings Sworn In as Education Secretary". Fox News. Associated Press. 2005-01-31. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,145902,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-26. 
7. ^ "Online NewsHour: Margaret Spellings Discusses New Guidelines for the No Child Left Behind Law - April 7, 2005". Pbs.org. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june05/spellings_4-7.html. Retrieved 2011-02-14. 
8. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/04/student.loans.education.reut/index.html^{[dead link]}
9. ^ Lipka, Sara (2008-01-10). "http://chronicle.com/news/article/3735/secretary-spellings-stands-up-to-senator-clinton?nb". Chronicle.com. http://chronicle.com/news/article/3735/secretary-spellings-stands-up-to-senator-clinton?nb. Retrieved 2011-02-14. 
10. ^ "In Focus: The Spellings Commission". Inside Higher Ed. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/focus/commission. 
11. ^ — Doug Lederman. "http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/08/measure". Insidehighered.com. http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/08/measure. Retrieved 2011-02-14. 
12. ^ "J! Archive, Show #5107". J-archive.com. http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1384. Retrieved 2011-02-14. 
13. ^ "The Daily Show, May 22 2007". Thedailyshow.com. http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=87387&title=margaret-spellings. Retrieved 2011-02-14. 
14. ^ "''The Colbert Report'' Episode Guide". Tv.com. http://www.tv.com/the-colbert-report/show/45593/episode_guide.html?season=4&tag=season_dropdown;dropdown;3. Retrieved 2011-02-14. 
15. ^ The topic she was grilled on was the Roleplaying Game Dungeons & Dragons owing to the death of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax that week. Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! : NPR

External links

	Houston portal
	Biography portal

• U.S Department of Education Biography
• 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

Political offices
Preceded by Roderick Paige	United States Secretary of Education Served under: George W. Bush 2005-2009	Succeeded by Arne Duncan

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