Report: Education secretary to leave

WASHINGTON - Rod Paige, who rose from racial segregation to become the nation's first black education secretary, intends to leave his Cabinet position, the Associated Press reported Friday, citing an anonymous administration official.

A Texan like President Bush, Paige, 71, came to prominence as an award-winning superintendent in Houston before becoming secretary in a time of huge change in federal education policy. An outspoken defender of demanding more from schools, he has been the public face behind No Child Left Behind, the law at the center of Bush's domestic agenda.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan declined to speculate about the Cabinet position.

Paige would be the third member of the Cabinet to make plans to leave since the president won a second term. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans also are leaving.

A leading candidate to replace Paige is Margaret Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser who helped shape his school agenda when he was the Texas governor. Spellings has a keen interest in schools and may want the Cabinet-level education job.

Paige has presided over the biggest federal shakeup to education in a generation, a law demanding that schools show improvement among all students, regardless of race or wealth. Paige, who grew up in segregated Mississippi, puts No Child Left Behind in the category of Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended separating schools by race.

Yet Paige has had rocky moments, including when he called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization" in a private meeting with governors.

He apologized but maintained that the NEA, the nation's largest teachers union, uses "obstructionist scare tactics" in opposing the law. The union called for his resignation.

Many education followers have suggested that Bush would seek a change at the top and that Paige would be content to go after capping his career in Washington. But some close to Paige have said he has seemed eager to carry on the oversight of the law.

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