Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

As the former Superintendent of North Carolina's schools, I am pleased to be here to give you this brief update from Washington.

There is a great deal of talk in Washington about education reform. I am pleased the new President has made education one of his top issues, and I am caustically optimistic that we can make some real progress on this, my number one priority. We have come a long way from my first days in the U.S. House when some in the so-called Leadership were calling for closing the Education Department and slashing education funding.

But, folks, I also want to sound a warning that the end result of this debate on education reform is far from determined. And we have many threats to its ultimate success.

First and foremost is the budget. We in North Carolina know that we must put real resources behind any education reform effort for it to have a chance. You know, Washington is a funny place. There are predictions that we are going to have huge budget surpluses ten years from now. So, the response from most inside the Beltway has been a massive feeding frenzy for tax cuts that will spend all those resources before they materialize. Now, I'm for tax relief for families, but our top priority of any budget surplus must be meet the education needs in this country.

Second, this divisive plan for private school vouchers is dead on arrival as far as I am concerned. It is simply wrong to use taxpayer money to finance private school tuition. I have opposed vouchers here in North Carolina. I have opposed vouchers in Congress. And I don't care how they dress them up, I will continue to oppose private school vouchers.

Finally, as you all know we have many education reform bills that have been introduced in Congress to restructure the federal government's role in improving our schools. Many of these plans are designed to encourage other states to make some of the reforms North Carolina has made. I am willing and eager to work with anyone in good faith to improve our schools. But I've been in this business long enough to know that talk is cheap. All of the reforms in the world won't make a bit of difference if we don't back them up with real resources. Funding. Money. Let's not forget to keep our eyes on the prize to make a real difference in education.

Thank you for the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you.

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