01/18/05 -- Margaret Spellings, President Bush’s nominee to be secretary of education, has promised to listen to school boards and other key constituents in implementing the No Child Left Behind Act
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, under the leadership of its new chair, Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.), unanimously approved the Spellings nomination, and Spellings is expected to win confirmation easily from the full Senate.
NSBA enthusiastically endorsed the nomination. Spellings has had “a distinguished career as a strong advocate and policymaker in the field of public education and has demonstrated her strong commitment to quality public education,” NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant wrote in a letter to Enzi.
“Perhaps of utmost importance in her career has been her intense leadership in ensuring that public schools and school districts across the country are held to a higher level of accountability for the academic performance of all students, regardless of socioeconomic conditions, race, ethnicity, or disability,” Bryant says. NSBA believes Spellings “brings the credentials, commitment, and experience to the position to ensure that the goals of NCLB and other federal programs will be achieved.”
Spellings was formerly a lobbyist for the Texas Association of School Boards and most recently was the President’s chief domestic policy adviser, where she is credited as one of the chief architects of NCLB.
Spellings, 47, would be the first woman to head the Education Department in more than 20 years and would be the first in recent history with school-age children. She has one daughter in a public middle school and one in a private high school.
During her confirmation hearing Jan. 6 before the Senate education committee, Spellings said that, in her two decades in public education, “I have learned two main lessons. First I have learned that every player in education has an important and rightful place.” Second, there is “an appropriate role for each of us who work on behalf of students.”
“Principals, superintendents, and school boards, as leaders and managers of our schools, need data to evaluate programs and practices and to know what students and teachers need,” she says. “They need resources aligned with priorities and results. They need to know what is working outside their communities as well as within them.”
As secretary, Spellings promised to “build on the policy foundation that has been laid in NCLB” by focusing on high schools and improving achievement in math and science.
During the hearing, Enzi called Spellings “an excellent nominee who possesses the skills, experience, and character to help bring our students of all ages and backgrounds along the pathway to the American dream.”
While expressing strong support for NCLB, Enzi also spoke about the need for the Education Department to consider flexibility to address the needs of rural states.
He also spoke about the necessity of “integrating our education programs so they support a lifetime of learning and changing the way we think about school and the education process.” If we are to prepare the next generation of professionals to lead the nation, he says, there needs to be a “seamless transition all the way from preschool through postsecondary education and beyond.”
—en. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, praised the nomination, calling Spellings “a champion for public education.”
But he also said a greater investment is needed if the nation is to continue to meet the promise of NCLB. “We simply cannot reform our public schools and expand access to a college education on a tin-cup education budget.”
Effective implementation of NCLB requires “more help for low-performing schools, greater support for teachers, and the development of better tests and accountability,” Kennedy says.
When asked during the hearing about specific improvements to NCLB, Spellings said, the department should do a better job of informing parents about the supplemental services available to them. She also says supplemental services might be a more viable option than school choice when an influx of lower-performing students leads to overcrowding.
While Spellings promised to listen to teachers, parents, and school boards about how NCLB can be fixed, she says, “no one is served by the horror stories that undermine this law.”