Top U.S. Education Officials to Visit Salt Lake Wednesday as Part of 2012 Cross-Country Back-to-School Bus Tour Promoting Education

David Bergeron, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education, and Brenda Girton-Mitchell, director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, will visit Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 12 to engage in events spotlighting classroom success, college affordability and the link between education and jobs. These engagements are part of the Education Department’s 2012 cross-country, back-to-school bus tour, Education Drives America.

The bus tour will kick off in Utah at Westminster College where Bergeron will lead a roundtable discussion on college access and affordability. Later on Wednesday, Girton-Mitchell will take part in a “Face to Faith” video conference session, featuring students at Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, who participate in the Tony Blair Foundation-sponsored program, sharing a lesson with students in Manila.

More than a half-dozen senior officials will hold events during the three-day bus tour stop in Utah. The tour begins this week in Silicon Valley and continues across America, winding up in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 21.

For live, up-to-the-minute updates from the road, follow the Education Drives America tour on Twitter using the hashtag #edtour1, or see the department’s bus tour blog. To receive media advisories, press releases, notifications about postings to the blog, and other special updates during the tour, subscribe to the department’s Education Drives America e-mail updates by clicking here.