Rod Paige Stepping Down Ping y'all!
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!
Posted on 11/12/2004 1:12:03 PM PST by fidelio
BC-Paige-Leaving, 2nd Ld-Writethru,0480
URGENT
Education Secretary Rod Paige intends to leave job, official says
Eds: ADDS six grafs with possible successor, background
AP Photo WX112
By BEN FELLER
AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Education Secretary Rod Paige intends to leave his Cabinet position, a Bush administration official told The Associated Press Friday.
"The secretary has been looking at leaving, and he's been in discussion with the White House about the right time to do so," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A Texan like Bush, Paige, 71, rose to prominence as an award-winning superintendent in Houston before becoming the nation's first black education secretary. He has been an outspoken defender of No Child Left Behind, the education law at the center of Bush's domestic agenda.
Paige would be the third member of the Bush Cabinet to make plans to leave since the president won a second term. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans also are departing.
Paige has not formally handed in his resignation, according to the official, who has talked to Paige about his plans.
The administration official said Paige is content to move on after overseeing Bush's education agenda for four years. The official declined to be identified because Paige has yet to resign.
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 shake up 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 v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended separating schools by race.
Yet Paige has had rocky moments, with none more glaring that 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 Bush would seek a change at the top, and that Paige would be content to go after capping his public service career in Washington. But in recent days, some close to Paige have said he's seemed eager to carry on the oversight of the law.
"I talked to him before he gave his speech at the Republican convention, and he seemed to be enjoying his job immensely," Williamson Evers, a Hoover Institution research fellow, said recently. Evers is an informal adviser to the White House and the Education Department.
Sucks to have the Rod Paige thread sandwiched amidst all the "Scott Peterson GUILTY!" threads, eh?
That's too bad. Mr. Paige was a stand up guy and took a lot of heat. I wish him the best and thank him for his service to this country and to our children's educational futures.
Yes, that was a great moment. Sad to see him step down, but those jobs are very draining.
Exactly, let him be the last.
Gingrich promised this a decade ago, lets get moving.
Isn't there someone a bit more well known than Margaret Spellings for this position? How abour Ward Connerly?
Can we get William H. Cosby, D.Ed. to replace him?
My prediction - Zell Miller.
Nice guy, but the truth is, the position should be eliminated since federal involvement in education is unconstitutional.
Well he definitely DID educate some folks at the RNC!
Thanks, Dr. Paige, for serving with honor. We Houstonians are proud of our home-boy, Rod Paige!
[dangus]
> Can we get William H. Cosby, D.Ed. to replace him?
YES!!!
The Coz would be PERFECT!
Sorry... but wow, was that inspired! (He's my favorite comedian, and he's laid out more straight talk to the NAACP-types and the libs than most others.)
Oh, I really liked him and will be sorry to see him go.
? ? ?
He was a college prof in the closest thing he had to a real job. He spent most of his career on the public payroll.
Good Texan ping
Zell was a college professor?
Yes, most of his academic career was at Young Harris College. When he left the governor's office, he got someone to endow a chair for him (actually, the family of one of Jimmy Carter's supporters who had been rewarded by JC with an ambassadorship) at the University of Georgia (he was a Democrat, after all).
Here's some source material:
ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia Governor Zell Miller -- known nationally as "the education governor" -- will return to his alma mater, the University of Georgia, as a Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and the first holder of the Philip H. Alston Jr. Chair after his term of office ends in January 1999.
***
He taught history and political science at the university as well as at Young Harris College in his hometown before turning to a political career that has spanned four decades.
http://www.uga.edu/uc/nr/current/07-29-98a.html
I nominate John Taylor Gatto.
Rod Paige Stepping Down Ping y'all!
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!
Franky, I'd rather the Dept. of Education dissolve, along with Health and Human Services.
This is an excerpt from Yahoo News:
"The leading candidate to replace Paige is Margaret Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser, who has helped his education policies for years."
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