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NewsApril 13, 1996

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, who spearheaded major reforms to South Carolina's public schools, will be the commencement speaker May 11 at Southeast Missouri State University. Riley will speak at commencement exercises, set for 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center, for 781 undergraduate and 74 graduate students...

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, who spearheaded major reforms to South Carolina's public schools, will be the commencement speaker May 11 at Southeast Missouri State University.

Riley will speak at commencement exercises, set for 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center, for 781 undergraduate and 74 graduate students.

Riley served two terms as governor of South Carolina. He helped reform the schools by bringing together a coalition of business people, educators and parents.

Dr. Bill Atchley, president of Southeast, knows Riley; Atchley was president of Clemson University during Riley's tenure as governor of South Carolina.

"I have a great deal of respect for Secretary Riley, both for his aggressive education efforts in South Carolina and for initiatives he has spearheaded during his tenure with the Clinton administration," Atchley said.

"His creative thinking and persistence in improving education for American youth in the new millennium is to be applauded," he said.

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Riley developed a program to get parents more involved in their children's education and helped build political support for a number of new federal laws to improve education.

The education initiatives include expansion and streamlining of the college loan program, creation of laws to help local school districts ensure that children can learn in safety and security, enactment of programs linking schools and businesses so students will be better prepared for future jobs or continuing education, new learning standards, and redesign and improvement of the primary federal program for helping disadvantaged elementary and high school students.

Riley was born in Greenville, S.C. He graduated cum laude from Furman University in 1954, and served two years as a Navy officer on a minesweeper.

He received his law degree in 1959 from the University of South Carolina School of Law.

He served in the state legislature from 1963 to 1977. He was elected governor in 1978. He was re-elected in 1982 after voters amended the state constitution to allow Riley to run for a second term.

He has served as secretary of education in the Clinton administration since 1993.

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