Margaret Spellings

We're fighting about who can go into whose locker rooms and which library books are on the shelves.

How did the baseline promise of public education get off track, academically and otherwise? And how do parents navigate the school system? With us to discuss all of this is the great Margaret Spellings.

I really can't think of anybody else in the country who's better to discuss this.

It's the truth, because she served as secretary of education, a position few people can claim.

I mean, and and expensive.

I mean, people are asking the right questions and I don't want to be not told you so.

But a big part of my tenure as the secretary of education, we can have another show, was the creation of this commission on the future of higher education, which became the Spellings Commission that was all about research.

What's going on up there? What about price? What about accountability? All these sorts of things that are now coming home to roost.

And all of the quick burn stuff that we do is dulling all those senses.

The education secretary under George W. Bush was a lady named Margaret Spellings.

Ironically, Spellings.

She said, quote, our kids are going in the wrong direction on the skills that are absolutely essential for their success.

We can...

We have to acknowledge, though, Matt, that starting with the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983, right through when Rod Page and Margaret Spellings were overseeing implementation of NCLB, the mainstream Republican Party, despite the people you mentioned, despite heritage, where you used to be, actually was supportive of the department and the consensus that we might use the department to improve student outcomes.

I wish I had time to detail how that consensus started to fall apart under the Obama administration.

Think Obama Corps.

Period.

The end, said Margaret Spellings, former education secretary under President George W. Bush.

She called for urgent action at all levels.

The challenges are not only American.

Today begins a new era, a new time in public education in our country.

Former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joins us as we look back at lessons learned and where we go from here.

Plus...

I really want kids off their screens and just having the opportunity to be kids again.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, there's been a lot of bullying that has gone on and harassment.

So we're gonna ask former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings about whether tech is a net plus or minus in today's schools as we continue our State of Education in America special.

[dramatic music]

We're doing the education special.

We'll talk to him about that, and former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is gonna be with us too.

Ah, Margaret.

We're also gonna break down the NIL legislation that has stalled on the Hill, 'cause that's higher education.

The federal debt is already raising the cost of living and choking out other spending and investments.

threatening our economy and Americans' long-term prosperity, said Margaret Spellings, president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Our current fiscal trajectory is plainly unsustainable, and that's the best-case scenario.

AI disruption, a recession, global war, or any number of the other events could quickly push us over the edge from a challenge into a full-blown crisis, Spellings said in a statement.