And without her, I never would have survived the...
And without her, I never would have survived the Arkansas political wars to become President

At the beginning of August, President Bush announced that he was inviting the nations governors to an education summit the following monthWe met September 27 and 28 at the University of Virginia in CharlottesvilleMany of the Democrats were skeptical of the meeting, because the President and his secretary of education, Lauro Cavazos, made it clear the meeting was not a prelude to a large increase in federal support for educationI shared their concern, but was I excited by the prospect that the summit could produce a road map for the next steps in education reform, just as the Nation at Risk report had done in 1983I believed the Presidents interest in education reform was genuine, and agreed with him that there were important things we could do without new federal moneyFor example, the administration supported giving parents and students the right to choose a public school other than the one to which they were assignedArkansas had just become the second state after Minnesota to adopt the proposal, and I wanted the other forty-eight states to follow suitI also believed that, if the summit produced the right kind of report, governors could use it to build public support for more investment in educationIf people knew what they would get for their money, their chanel black bucket tote bag aversion to new taxes might lessenAs the co-chairman of the Governors Task Force on Education, along with Governor Carroll Campbell of South Carolina, I wanted to build a consensus among the Democrats, then to work with the Republicans on a statement reflecting the outcome of the summit

President Bush opened the meeting with a brief but eloquent speechAfterward, we all took a stroll around the central lawn to give the photographers something for the evening news and morning papers, then went to workThe President and MrsBush hosted a dinner that nightHillary sat at the Presidents table and got into a debate with him about how bad Americas infant-mortality rate wasThe President couldnt believe it when she said eighteen countries did a better job than we did in keeping babies alive until the age of twoWhen she offered to get him the evidence, he said he would find it himselfHe did, and the next day he gave me a note for Hillary saying she was rightIt was a gracious gesture that reminded me of the day in Kennebunkport six years earlier when he had personally escorted three-year-old Chelsea to the bathroom

When Carroll Campbell was called home to deal with an emergency, I was left to work out the details of a summit statement with the NGA chairman, Republican governor Terry Branstad of Iowa; the associations education staffer, Mike Cohen; and my tiffany & co jewelry aide, Representative Gloria CabeLaboring until well after midnight, several of us hammered out a statement committing the governors and the White House to development of a set of specific education goals to be achieved by the year 2000Unlike the standards movement of the last decade, these goals would be focused on outputs, not inputs, obligating all of us to achieve certain resultsI argued that we would look foolish unless we came out of Charlottesville with a bold commitment that would put new energy into education reform

From the start, most of the governors were behind the cause and supported the idea of making the summit the start of something bigSome of the Presidents people werent so sureThey were afraid of committing him to a big idea that could get him into trouble by raising expectations of new federal fundingBecause of the deficit and the Presidents no new taxes pledge, that wasnt in the cardsIn the end, the White House came around, thanks to John Sununu, who was then the White House chief of staffSununu convinced his White House colleagues that the governors couldnt go home empty-handed, and I promised to minimize public pressure from the governors for more federal moneyThe final summit declaration said, The time has come, for the first time in Uhistory, to establish clear national performance goals, goals that will make us internationally chanel j12 watch competitive

At the end of the summit, President Bush hand-wrote me a very cordial note, thanking me for working with his staff on the summit and saying he wanted to keep education reform out there above the fray as we headed into the 1990 midterm electionThe governors education committee immediately began a process to develop the goals, working with the White House domestic-policy advisor, Roger Porter, who had gone to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar a year after I didWe worked furiously over the next four months to reach agreement with the White House in time for the Presidents State of the Union address

By the end of January 1990, we had agreed on six goals for the year 2000:

By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn

By the year 2000, the high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent

By the year 2000, American students will leave grades four, eight, and twelve having demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, history, and geography; and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our modern economy

By the year 2000, Ustudents will be first in the world in science and mathematics achievement

By rolex datejust the year 2000, every adult in America will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship

By the year 2000, every school in America will be free of drugs and violence and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning

On January 31, I sat in the gallery of the House of Representatives as President Bush announced these goals, said they were developed jointly by the White House and the Governors Task Force on Education, and reported that they would be part of a more comprehensive goals-and-objectives statement that we would present to all the governors at their winter meeting the next month

The document the governors adopted in late February was a worthy successor to the 1983 Nation at Risk reportI was proud to have been a part of it, impressed by the knowledge and commitment of my fellow governors, and grateful to the President, John Sununu, and Roger PorterFor the next eleven years, as governor and President, I worked hard to reach the national education goalsWe had set the bar highWhen you set a high bar and reach for it, even if you fall short, you wind up well ahead of where you started

I spent the last months of 1989 trying to decide what to do with the rest of my lifeThere were good arguments against running for a fifth fendi spy t