U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings
Notes from Evan Smith
"Long before George W. Bush appointed her the U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings was joined at the hip with four words that will follow her around for all time. In 2001 as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Spellings was one of the principal authors of the now-famous, and somewhat controversial No Child Left Behind Act, which demands greater accountability of schools and teachers and administrators. Supportors of the plan hail the possibility of finally improving the quality of public primary and secondary education. Critics, including several Republican governors, complain that unfunded mandates from the federal government are in conflict with their party’s passionate embrace of local control, and that an undue emphasis on standardized testing forces teachers to test performance skills rather than the things young minds need to know. Critics of those critics say the things on the test are the things young minds need to know. Round and round it goes. But at least Spellings, in her no longer nascent efforts in the Cabinet, has gotten the issue of reform on everyone’s radar screen—and for that she deserves credit. Born in Michigan, but raised in Houston, the 49-year-old studied Political Science at the University of Houston, and put her degree to good use working for Republican Governor Bill Clements on an education reform comission, and later as an associate executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards. She was political director of candidate George Bush’s 1994 campaign against Ann Richards, and was senior advisor to the Governor until he won the White House. No wonder that he asked her to follow him to Washington. And no wonder, when you spend time with this engaging, approachable, and down-to-earth, long-time Austinite that she was able to push domestic policy to the fore in a White House focused largely, if not entirely, on Iraq."
- Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 1.25.07
