IEF E-Newsletter

Hours after President Bush was sworn in last week for his second term, the Senate unanimously confirmed Margaret Spellings as the eighth U.S. Secretary of Education. Below are excerpts from her first message to Department staff.

"As I indicated in my confirmation hearing, there is no more critical obligation each of us has to the American people than to educate our citizens. In our diverse country, we share the belIEI that education is the great equalizer. It is the key to success for individual Americans and the key to success of our nation -- not just economic success but civic and democratic success. In our country, we believe that a great education must be available to each and every American."

"Our schools are, right now, preparing the individuals who will succeed each of us.... I have been involved in our public schools for more than two decades in many different ways. I am a parent of school-aged children. I have worked in both legislative and executive branches of government, as well as at the local, state, and federal levels. We have a lot of work ahead of us, work that will affect our nation's future in a most fundamental way."

For more info on Spellings, go to http://www.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/spellings.html

The Insurance Education Institute (IEI) is once again proud to announce the competition for the James L. Osborne Insurance Educator of the Year Award for the year 2005. In honor of the organization's founder, this award will be presented to a high school teacher who demonstrates excellence in providing insurance education to our nation's high school students. More...

IEI would like to promote scholarships that are available to high school students wishing to enter the insurance or personal finance industry on our web site.

If your company or organization provides a scholarship and would like to be included on our site, please go to www.IEI.org/support/scholarshipform.asp and complete the online form to have your information added.

We are committed to not only educating young people about managing the risks they face in their everyday lives, but also to providing our contributors with a means of recruiting trained and qualified workers.

For more information, contact Michelle Maclin at mmaclin@IEI.org, or 800-433-4811, ext. 1025.

The different insurance sections of the Educators area have been reorganized and updated. There are new lesson plans, activities, downloads, and a new section called "Other Resources" in every topic.

IEI would like to acknowledge those companies who have recently increased their 2005 contribution:

IEI also welcome Buckeye State Mutual Insurance Company as a new contributor in 2005!

To those companies that annually contribute to the Foundation, we’d just like to remind you to renew your commitment to IEI’s mission and programs in 2005. It is our goal to renew the yearly contributions in the first quarter of the year so that time and efforts can be focused on developing programs and teaching materials for teachers.

If you are unsure of whether you’ve renewed your donation yet this year, or if you need to know the suggested contribution level or the amount of a previous donation, please contact Courtney Stanton at cstanton@IEI.org or 800-433-4811, ext. 1022.