Will Education be a Major Issue in '08? October 16, 2007

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2007/07/05/On_Education

Panelists William Gates Sr., Tommy Thompson and Margaret Spellings discuss the importance of education as a policy issue in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.

This excerpt is taken from a panel discussion on the current state of U.S. education, recorded at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival.

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On Education with discussants William H. Gates, Sr., Gov. Tommy G. Thompson and Education Sec. Margaret Spellings speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival. David Gergen moderates the discussion.

Some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world all gathered in a single place - to teach, speak, lead, question, and answer at the 2006 Aspen Ideas Festival. Throughout the week, they all interacted with an audience of thoughtful people who stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought, and discussion.

William H. Gates, Sr., is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and founder of the Initiative for Global Development, a group of local civic and political leaders that is urging the US Government to increase its foreign-assistance spending to combat global poverty. As an attorney, Gates helped establish Preston Gates & Ellis, one of Seattles leading law firms, and has served as president of both the Seattle/King County Bar Association and the Washington State Bar Association.

Tommy G. Thompson served from 2001 to 2005 as US Secretary of Health and Human Services. Before that, he served four terms as the 42nd Governor of Wisconsin, where he enacted the states landmark welfare-to-work legislation and created the nations first parental school choice program. He also served as a representative in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Formerly a Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential election, Gov. Thompson withdrew from the race in August 2007.

Margaret Spellings is the US Secretary of Education. Prior to her tenure as Education Secretary, she served as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, where she helped create the No Child Left Behind Act and crafted policies on education, immigration, health care, labor, transportation, justice, housing, and other elements of the Presidents domestic agenda. Previously, she worked for six years as senior advisor to Governor George W. Bush with responsibility for developing and implementing education reforms and policies.

David Gergen is Public Service Professor of Public Leadership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government. Over the past three decades, he has served as a White House advisor to four presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. In the mid-1980s, he began a career in journalism, becoming editor of U.S. News & World Report. He joined the Kennedy School faculty in January 1999, while remaining editor-at-large for U.S. News and a frequent television analyst. He is the author of Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.