Margaret Spellings
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| Margaret Spellings | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2005 |
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| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Rod Paige |
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| Born | December 30, 1957 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 Bush. She is the first mother of school-aged children to serve as Education Secretary. She is the second woman to serve as Education Secretary. 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.
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[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'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, Margaret 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, which also marked the beginning of Bush's second presidential term.
[edit] Controversy over views of same-sex relationships and their portrayal on PBS
In January 2005, only days after becoming the Secretary of Education, 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."[2]
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."[3] PBS decided not to distribute the episode, although independent PBS stations have opted to air it. 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 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.[5]. 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.[6]
[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 is quoted as saying: "It's time we turn this elephant around and upside down and take a look at it."[7]
[edit] Media appearances
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- 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.[8]
- 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.[citation needed]
- She appeared over the phone on NPR's News Quiz Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on March 8, 2008.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Houston Independent School District
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40188-2005Jan26.htmlThe Washington Post, January 26, 2005.
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33612-2005Feb17.html, Barney Frank in Washington Post, February 17, 2005.
- ^ http://www.wftv.com/family/4206636/detail.html
- ^ http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/04/student.loans.education.reut/index.html
- ^ http://chronicle.com/news/article/3735/secretary-spellings-stands-up-to-senator-clinton?nb
- ^ http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/08/measure
- ^ J! Archive, Show #5107
- ^ Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! : NPR
Here is the refernece of the video clip where in Jon Stewart Specifically says that Margaret Spellings is the only one from Bush Administrations Executive Branch who has appeared on the show. http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=87387&title=margaret-spellings
[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
| Preceded by Roderick Paige |
United States Secretary of Education Served Under: George W. Bush 2005 – present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Preceded by Samuel W. Bodman |
United States Presidential Line of Succession 14th in line |
Succeeded by James Peake |
| Preceded by Samuel W. Bodman |
United States order of precedence as of 2007 |
Succeeded by James Peake |
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| 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 | |
