Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush selected domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings, an education aide when he was governor of Texas, to replace Roderick Paige as the secretary of education.

Spellings, 46, is Bush's second adviser to be elevated to a Cabinet position this week, following National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's nomination to succeed Colin Powell as secretary of state. Bush last week nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to serve as attorney general after John Ashcroft's resignation.

Spellings, if confirmed by the Senate, will take the top education post as schools are seeking to meet minimum standards set by Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. The law requires U.S. public schools to test students each year. The National Education Association, representing 2.7 million teachers, says the rules are ``unworkable'' and Bush didn't provide enough money to create and enforce the standards for the nation's 86,000 public schools.

``The NEA is hopeful that President Bush's nominee for education secretary understands the vital role teachers play in improving student achievement,'' the union's president, Reg Weaver, said. ``This is a great opportunity for the administration to change the tone of its discourse with the education community.''

Paige, 71, rankled the nation's largest teachers' union in February by calling the NEA a ``terrorist organization'' for opposing the school-testing law. Paige, who made the remark during a White House meeting with U.S. governors, later apologized.

Law's Architect

Spellings was the architect of the No Child Left Behind law, the New York Times reported.

``Margaret Spellings has a special passion for this cause,'' Bush said at the White House today. ``She knows that the stakes are too high to tolerate failure.''

Spellings traveled the country visiting schools that had improved test scores and briefed reporters on behalf of the White House on Bush's education policies. She is a graduate of the University of Houston and was the associate executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards.

``She has my complete trust,'' Bush said.

The NEA will continue to lobby for changes in the law, including giving school districts more flexibility in using standardized tests to measure student performance, spokesman Michael Pons said this week.

Bush said his school testing law is essential to making sure minorities don't fall behind in reading and math. The testing program has raised student performance, and his fiscal year 2005 education budget request -- $68.8 billion -- is a 49 percent boost over fiscal 2001, the president said.

The Department of Education accounts for about 6 percent of the $852 billion spent on public education, with the rest coming mainly from state and local governments and private sources, according to government figures.

Paige, a former superintendent of schools in Houston, resigned this week. He said he would remain at the post until the Senate confirms his successor.

To contact the reporter on this story: William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 17, 2004 11:09 EST