Secretary of Education Rod Paige is one of the least recognizable members of the president's Cabinet. The Bush administration has not taken education particularly seriously - as the failure to fund the ridiculously named No Child Left Behind Act illustrates - so Paige has not made much news over the past three years.
But the secretary made news Monday, when he told a group of governors that the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, is a "terrorist organization." When he was called on the carpet, Paige refused to apologize, saying only that he should have chosen different words.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., one of the leading advocates for public education in Congress, called on President Bush to fire Paige. While we don't usually support the removal of an official for making a single inappropriate remark, Paige's lack of remorse suggests that Schakowsky is right when she says, "It's time for President Bush to leave Secretary Paige behind."
