Delaware Congressman Mike Castle, a 1961 graduate of Hamilton College, will deliver the college's commencement address on Sunday, May 23, at 10:30 a.m. Hamilton's commencement ceremony will take place on the Main Quadrangle, or in the event of inclement weather, in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House.
A former deputy attorney general, state legislator, lieutenant governor and two-term governor of Delaware, Castle is currently serving his sixth term as Delaware's sole member in the House of Representatives.
Castle, a Republican, has played a key role in enacting many important laws. He has been instrumental in helping to write and pass welfare reform, the Balanced Budget Act, child nutrition programs, "No Child Left Behind" education reform and campaign finance reform, to name a few.
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Castle chairs the Subcommittee on Education Reform and has jurisdiction over pre-school through high school education, including vocational-tech education. He played a major role in shaping the education reform package, No Child Left Behind, that President Bush signed into law. Major issues currently on Castle's agenda are testing, flexibility, assessments, early reading, teacher quality, and raising the performance of all students by narrowing the gap between disadvantaged students and their better-off peers.
Through his subcommittee, Castle has focused on one of his top priorities -- education research. His legislation, which President Bush signed into law, will improve the quality and relevance of education research, by holding these activities to new standards of scientific rigor and focusing on the needs of educators and policymakers. Castle will also focus on reform of early childhood programs and the needs of special education students.
Castle also serves on the House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over banking with the securities and insurance industries. He is studying how the nation's financial markets serve consumers, oversee the insurance industry, target fraudulent brokers and ensure the safety and soundness of institutions that lend consumers credit.
Castle was born and raised in Wilmington, Del., where he currently lives with his wife, Jane. In addition to earning a bachelor's degree in economics from Hamilton, he is a graduate of Tower Hill School and Georgetown University Law School.
Approximately 461 Hamilton students will receive bachelor's degrees during the commencement ceremony that marks the end of the college's 192nd academic year.
