This newsletter focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country, and is presented in an accessible format for everyone from elected officials and policymakers to parents and community leaders. First, it talks about George W. Bush's first policy speech as president of the United States that outlined the ideas and principals behind what would become the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Second, it presents a report by the International Benchmarking Advisory Group--"Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education"--which states that if state leaders want to ensure that their citizens and economies remain competitive in the new global economy, they must look beyond America's borders and benchmark their education systems with the best in the world and suggests five action steps that states can take to build globally competitive education systems. Third, it presents a new report from ACT--"The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students Are on Target for College and Career Readiness before High School"--which reports that though the level of academic achievement students reach by eighth grade has a greater impact on their college- and work-readiness than anything that happens academically in high school, most eighth graders are not on track to be college- and work-ready upon graduation. Finally, it presents the annual state of the state addresses of Governor John Hoeven from North Dakota and Governor David A. Paterson from New York that explain how they anticipate closing the holes in their budgets. (Contains 2 footnotes.)