Margaret Spellings

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**Margaret Spellings**
8th United States Secretary of Education

In office
January 20, 2005 – present
Preceded by	Rod Paige
Born	November 30, 1957 Michigan
Political party	Republican

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 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 has come under some scrutiny for her anti-gay activism as Secretary. She is married to Robert Spellings, who practices law in Austin and has lobbied for the adoption of school vouchers in Texas.

1 Early Life
2 Secretary of Education
- 2.1 Opinions of same-sex parents and PBS
3 "No Child Left Behind"
4 Commission on the Future of Higher Education
5 External links

[edit] Early Life

The eldest of four daughters, Spellings was born in Michigan and moved with her family to Houston when she was in third grade. Spellings graduated from Sharpstown High School in 1975 [1].

Spellings earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Houston 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, Spellings was nominated to the post of the Secretary of Education by George W. Bush on November 17, 2004, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 20, 2005, and sworn in the same day.

[edit] Opinions of same-sex parents and PBS

In January 2005, Spellings sent a letter to the head of PBS condemning an episode of the show Postcards From Buster which 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 moms 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." [2]

Rep. Barney Frank 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." [3] PBS decided not to distribute the episode although independent PBS stations have opted to do so. PBS chairman Pat Mitchell subsequently stepped down. [4]

[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 Connecticut Post, 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."

[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, casually known as the Spellings Commission, 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, and a secondary focus on how well high schools were preparing students for post-secondary education.The commission currently is still in its finishing stages. Spellings describes the work of the Commission as a natural extension into higher education of the reforms carried out under No Child Left Behind, and quoted as saying: "It's time we turn this elephant around and upside down and take a look at it."

[edit] External links

Preceded by: Roderick Paige	United States Secretary of Education Under President George W. Bush 2005 – present	Succeeded by: Incumbent
Preceded by: Samuel W. Bodman	United States Presidential Line of Succession 14th in line	Succeeded by: Jim Nicholson
Preceded by: Samuel W. Bodman	United States order of precedence as of 2006	Succeeded by: Jim Nicholson

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

Current members of the Cabinet of President George W. Bush
Bodman • Bolten • Chao • Cheney • Chertoff • Gonzales • Gutierrez • Jackson • Johanns • Johnson • Kempthorne • Leavitt • Nicholson • Paulson • Peters • Portman • Rice • Rumsfeld • Schwab • Spellings • Walters