US Secy of Education travels globe

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings listens during a G8 ministerial summit in Moscow on June 1.

Washington — As Cabinet members go, the education secretary typically sticks to domestic matters. But Margaret Spellings has put her own stamp on the job - a passport stamp.

In less than a year and a half, Spellings has traveled to Afghanistan, England, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan and Russia. Next up are Greece and Spain this month.

Spellings says she needs to travel to shape policies at home that reflect an understanding of the nations the United States competes against or financially aids.

Not everyone agrees.

Keith Ashdown, spokesman for the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, questioned how much benefit taxpayers would get out of the trips. The Education Department would be better served, he said, to send midlevel employees who handle day-to-day activities.

"These trips by executives at agencies, there's not a lot of bang for the buck," Ashdown said. "They're mainly expensive public relations events to make the agencies look good." Transportation, food and lodging for her overseas travel cost the Education Department $36,981, records show. The total cost of her travel was thousands of dollars higher, but a few trips were paid for by other agencies.

Since taking office in January 2005, Spellings has taken seven trips overseas. That's one more than her predecessor, Rod Paige, took during his entire four years in the Cabinet. "We are looked to and admired around the world as people who know how to do education for the masses," Spellings said in an interview with The Associated Press on June 15.

Spellings is traveling more than previous secretaries, because these are different times, said Christopher Cross, who has written a book about the history of the Education Department. "We're so much more aware of the international competitiveness," said Cross, who served as assistant education secretary under the first President Bush." If she were sitting in her office and not doing any of these things, I would be even more concerned."

Spellings' trips also result from her close relationship with President Bush, whom she met in Texas years ago. She served as top White House domestic adviser during Bush's first term. Three of her trips came at the request of the White House.

She accompanied first lady Laura Bush to launch a training institute for women teachers in Kabul, Afghanistan. She also led US delegations to the 2005 World Expo in Nagoya, Japan, and to the 2006 Paralympics in Turin, Italy.

Her other trips focused mainly on meeting international counterparts.