| Margaret Spellings |
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Margaret Spellings (born '''Margaret Dudar''' on November 21 , 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 . The eldest of four daughters, she was born in Michigan and moved with her family to Houston when she was in third grade. 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. She is married to Robert Spellings, who practices law in Austin and has lobbied for the adoption of school vouchers in Texas. 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. Since her appointment, Spellings has worked diligently to advance the cause of public school reform through her promotion of Christian values and public funding of religious schools. {Link without Title} PBS In January 2005, Spellings sent a letter to the head of subsequently stepped down. {Link without Title} "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" & STATE SOVEREIGNTY In April 2005, on PBS' The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer , she called Connecticut's resistance to the No Child Left Behind Act as 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." VINCE YOUNG In a January 5, 2006 AP wire story Sec Spellings weighed in with her opinion as to whether or not University of Texas football star Vince Young should turn pro or return for his senior year in college. "My professional opinion, as Secretary of Education, is that Vince Young definitely needs to stay in school," Spellings said during a State Department dinner on Thursday January 4th. EXTERNAL LINKS
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