U.S. education secretary visits Catholic school in New Orleans

Published: 2008-02-04

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) --The St. Peter Claver seventh-grade students were studying heredity and genetics when U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings dropped in for a visit Jan. 31. Teacher Rachel Pleis was using M&M candies in different colors to emphasize her points. After listening to the students answer questions from the teacher and asking a few of her own, Spellings moved on with her group, which included Ursuline Sister Kathleen Finnerty, New Orleans archdiocesan school superintendent, and New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes. But, Spellings confided later to a school assembly that she didn't leave empty-handed. "I got a few M&Ms when I left that classroom," she said. Spellings' visit to the New Orleans Catholic school was part of a trip to Louisiana that included an earlier stop in Baton Rouge. It was during Catholic Schools Week Jan. 27-Feb. 2. Spellings called Catholic schools "little treasures," adding it was great that in his State of the Union address President George W. Bush announced a White House conference this spring on faith-based schools in cities.

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