Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings emphasized the Bush administration’s commitment to the work of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in a speech last week in Washington.
“Thanks to the reform-minded leadership of its current director general, [Koichiro] Matsura, UNESCO is now equipped to make a real difference. And it is,” she said on June 7 in prepared remarks at what she called the first meeting in more than 20 years of the U.S. National Commission of UNESCO.
The United States refused to be part of the Paris-based UNESCO for two decades before rejoining in October 2003.
“We are looking not to the past, but to the bright future,” she said, “ready to help promote locally developed solutions that respect a country’s culture and sovereignty.”
