Last Friday evening, March 1, was a special night for the Opportunity Education Foundation, which helps to give hundreds of thousands of kids in Africa and Asia access to quality education and which I’ve been privileged to support for the past eight years. We were in Dallas, Texas, at the Verizon Theater at Grand Prairie, for the first-ever Opportunity Education Benefit Concert, an exciting event headlined by the talented young pop star Kelly Clarkson.

It was a wonderful evening, filled with great music and good feeling. For me, the best part was seeing so many young people having such a good time while hearing about the foundation’s important work. It was also inspiring to hear Ms. Clarkson, whose mother is a teacher, talk about the link between education and opportunity – how America became known as the Land of Opportunity because of the access to good education that so many of us take for granted and how the Opportunity Education Foundation is working to give children all over the world the same chance to succeed.

I’m so grateful to Ms. Clarkson for supporting our efforts and helping to spread the word about Opportunity Education’s vital mission.