As Prepared for Delivery - Speaker Frequently Deviates from Text

Thank you Mr. President. I am honored personally and on behalf of the Department of Education to welcome you and Vice President Cheney to the Department. Your presence makes this an auspicious day for the Department and for public education.

I would also like to thank the many members of Congress who are here today. I am looking forward to working with you in the service of our children. I would also like to thank each of you for generously sharing your ideas and your experiences with me - and also for telling me of your hopes that we can use education reform as a platform for building and sustaining bipartisan consensus.

Congressman Watts, my thanks to you for your words of invocation. And also to Reverend Ratliff, who has traveled from Houston to participate in this ceremony.

And on a very personal note -- I share this day with my family -- my sisters Elaine, Alphreda and Raygene, my brother Jimmy and my son - who match my passion for education and my pride in being named Secretary of Education. I would also like to welcome my friends from Houston - Dr. and Mrs. Reed, and Houston school board members Laurie Bricker and Larry Marshall, and staff member Bob Stockwell.

Yesterday was an historic day for those of us who have been involved in reforming public education. I had the pleasure and the privilege to stand beside President Bush as he delivered his education reform package to the Congress and laid out his plans for turning that proposal into law.

From the standpoint of educators and of the Department of Education, President Bush is not your typical President. He has made education his first priority. And the proposal that he delivered yesterday is not just an announcement of a Blue Ribbon panel or a pilot program. President Bush has set forth a clear and detailed plan for making our public schools excellent, so that every child in this country can have access to a quality education. He has included in that plan not only the objectives, but the support and the flexibility that states, school districts, schools and parents will need in order to reach those objectives.

President Bush has assumed as his mission that no child be left behind in a failing school. He has made it clear that he sees the urgency involved in making our classrooms safer, in equipping each child with reading and math skills, and in closing the inexcusable achievement gap that exists among students attending public schools across this country. Particularly among minority students and economically disadvantaged students.

I am proud to have been identified with the Houston Independent School District and to have worked with administrators, teachers and parents there to bring about changes in the classroom. I look forward to working with the President, Vice President and members of Congress to turn the President's deep commitment to our public schools into quality for our students.

Together with you Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, and with the Congress, we can make education reform the law of the land. I will work with the men and women who have dedicated themselves to the Department of Education and to students across the country to empower states, school districts, schools and parents in order that we may serve the needs of our students. When each and every child in this country can receive a quality public education we will have made history together.

Thank you.