Rod Paige AMERICA'S EDUCATION CHIEF - Interview

Ebony, Oct, 2001 by Kevin Chappell

IT was shaping up to be a routine holiday season for Rod Paige. With only three days left before Christmas, Houston was not exactly a winter wonderland, and the Houston public school superintendent was a long way from being finished with his holiday shopping. But the normalcy of the moment changed when Paige's phone rang and pandemonium broke loose.

Before Paige knew what was going on, he was in the Texas capital, talking to President-elect George W. Bush.

Before he knew what was going on, he was in the nation's capital.

Before he knew what was going on, his life had changed forever, had taken a turn that only a few people, and only a handful of Blacks, had ever experienced. In a matter of days, the 68-year-old lifelong educator from Monticello, Miss., had gone from a virtually unknown local school superintendent to being the first Black secretary of education.

Nearly a year later, Paige chuckles at the events surrounding his appointment. As he relaxes in jeans and a fraternity T-shirt in his posh town house near Capitol Hill, the man Bush called "a reformer and someone who has a record of results" is the first to admit that it took him longer to personally come to grips with his new position than it did to actually get it. But while the transition for Paige has been tough, it has also been rewarding.

He calls the first six weeks as education secretary "a harrowing experience." Plucked with virtually no warning from his modest three-bedroom home in Houston, a city he had called home for 30 years, Paige says he wits filled with mixed emotions. "I was leaving friends. I was leaving a job that I loved. The first month I was here I was dealing with that," he says. "I was feeling bad about the fact that I had left. I was in a strange place. I didn't know these people. Things were coming tit me from every direction. The president rolled out the education plan right after the inauguration. Then I found out the budget was due, and that I had to prepare a federal budget--and I had no idea how to prepare a federal budget."

Well, he prepared the budget and has since settled into his new high-profile role. On this day, for example, he rode with the president across town to the National Urban League Conference at the D.C. Convention Center. He said he now considers the pomp and circumstance routine. "The first time I rode in the limo with the president, I couldn't believe I was sitting there. There were squad cars, black SUVS carrying guys with black jumpsuits on and attack dogs," Paige says. "But now it's different. Today, I sat in the back seat of the limo with the most powerful man in the world, and my mind wasn't blown. I'm comfortable. Now, I'm handling this like it is routine, like I belong here. I feel now that I'm in a place where I should be."

Known for his snake, lizard, ostrich and alligator cowboy boots, his array of Italian suits, and his top-notch cooking skills, Paige spends much of his time traveling across country to speak to teachers, students and parents. When he's in Washington, his day is filled with staff meetings, trips to Capitol Hill, and meetings with members of Congress.

Paige says his top priority as the secretary of education is to close the achievement gap between suburban and urban schools, and between the United States and other countries. He also wants to stress the parents' role as a teacher.

The first local school superintendent to serve as secretary of education, Paige believes he brings a practitioner's point of view to the position. "I believe the president picked me for specific reasons, and I believe I am capable of fulfilling those reasons," he says. "My head is clear ... It is my opportunity to make a contribution nationally. My full focus is on that. I plan to put the same force and drive into this that I did in Houston. [The position] in Houston was not an ordinary job. I treated it like an obsession. Excellence is never associated with moderation. Excellence is associated with obsession."

Under Paige, student achievement in Houston--the seventh-largest school system in the country--soared. In 1998, more than 80 percent of the high school students passed the state writing exam, up from about 15 percent in five years, and 70 percent passed the math test, up from 45 percent in 1992. He quickly won over the Hispanic community, which had pushed for a Hispanic schools chief for the heavily Hispanic city. Some critics, however, charge that test scores improved only because Paige had encouraged teachers to teach the test, and that under Paige, low-performing students were systematically encouraged to drop out --charges that Paige and his supporters dismiss.

"I loved Houston," says Paige, who at the time of his departure was the highest-paid school district chief in the country. "I had been superintendent for a long time. We were making progress. We had the goal of becoming the best public school system in America. When I said that in 1994, it sounded like a pipe dream. But when I left, people really believed they could. People were proud to be a member of the Houston Independent School District."