Nov. 17, 2004
Ben Feller
To the president, she delivers exactly what he expects from schools: results.
As Bush's domestic policy adviser, Spellings has helped shape the news while staying out of it herself. Karl Rove, the president's political strategist, was quoted this fall as saying Spellings is "the most influential woman in Washington that you've never heard of."
Bush has chosen Spellings to replace Rod
Paige, an administration official told the
Associated Press on Tuesday. An official
announcement was likely as early as today.
"She understands what he thinks. They're very,
very close," said Sandy Kress, a lawyer who
worked at the White House for Spellings when he
was Bush's senior education adviser.
Spellings worked for six years as Bush's
education adviser in Texas, pushing policies on
early reading and student accountability. They
became the model for the federal No Child Left
Behind law that Spellings helped put together.
She has overseen a range of domestic policies,
from justice to housing, but schools are an
issue of deep interest. In an online White House
public forum, Spellings has said she has been
thrilled to take questions about the new law: "I
love talking about education."
Spellings, 46, will take over leadership of the
Education Department at a critical time. Many
lawmakers, teachers and parents are frustrated
by No Child Left Behind, which gives more
attention to poor and minority kids but
penalizes some low-income schools that fall
short.
Paige, 71, also had a broken relationship with
the National Education Association, the largest
teachers union in the country. He once referred
to the NEA as a "terrorist organization."
"This is a great opportunity for the
administration to change the tone of its
discourse with the education community,
particularly the 2.7 million members of the
National Education Association who are in
schools all over this nation," NEA President Reg
Weaver said.
Spellings must face a Senate vote.
Kress has known Spellings since she was a
lobbyist for the Texas Association of School
Boards in the early 1990s. He called her
practical, willing to take a partial victory,
then come back and fight again for the rest of
the win.
"She's conservative, but she'll listen to
teachers, she'll listen to administrators,"
Kress said. "She wants to change the system, but
she wants to talk to people in the system..
The ranking Democrat on the Senate education
committee, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, said
Tuesday that Spellings is "a capable, principled
leader who has the ear of the president and has
earned strong, bipartisan respect in Congress."
Spellings was Bush's political director during
his successful run for governor in 1994.