From the site of the California Secretary of Education:
Richard J. Riordan was appointed Secretary for Education on November 3, 2003, marking Governor Schwarzenegger's first cabinet appointment. Secretary Riordan advises the governor on education policy.

The citizens of California are getting more than a new Secretary for Education; they are getting a caring, astute, courteous, and highly accessible leader.

Secretary Riordan's appointment is a natural extension of his civic activism that began well before his entry to public service. In 1981, Riordan created the charitable foundation that bears his name with one goal in mind: to teach children how to read and write. Through its signature “Rx for Reading” program, the Riordan Foundation has distributed some 21,700 computers to 2,100 schools in 40 states and enabled the purchase of 128,000 books for elementary classroom libraries.

For children with limited access to books, Riordan created the “Recreational Reading Mini-Grant Program” that awards $1,000 grants to teachers to help them create a library inside their classrooms. Since 1993, this program has donated $1.5 million in book grants serving more than 30,000 children in grades K-5. Riordan also launched “Read to me,” a citywide reading program that encourages parents and caregivers to begin reading to their children at an early age.

In addition to Riordan's education work for young students, he co-founded The Riordan Programs at The Anderson School at UCLA with Professor William Ouchi, The Riordan Programs consist of The Riordan Scholars Program and The Riordan Fellows Program, serving high school students and college students/recent college alumni respectively. Program participants are taught by Anderson School faculty and mentored by Anderson MBA students.