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(Photo: AP)
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President Bush chose Margaret Spellings to succeed Rod Paige as education secretary in his second-term Cabinet. Formerly Mr. Bush's domestic policy adviser, Spellings oversaw a range of domestic policy, from justice to housing. Karl Rove, the president's political strategist, was quoted as saying she is "the most influential woman in Washington that you've never heard of." But education is an issue of deep interest to Spellings, who worked for six years as Mr. Bush's education adviser in Texas, pushing policies on early reading and student accountability. They became the model for the federal law, No Child Left Behind, which Spellings helped put together from the White House after Mr. Bush's election in 2000.
Rod Paige earned a bachelor's degree from Jackson State University and a master's and a doctorate from Indiana University. Formerly the Houston superintendent of schools, Paige is widely credited with making the Houston district, the largest in Texas and seventh largest in the nation, one of the country's finest urban school districts. He was appointed superintendent in 1994 after having served as Dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University. He was 2000's superintendent of the year of the National Alliance of Black School Educators, and is the first black American to serve as education secretary. He resigned from the position Nov. 15, 2004.
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