Margaret Spellings (born Margaret Dudar, 1958) is the current Secretary of Education under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and was previously a Domestic Policy Adviser to Bush. She was one of the principal authors of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.
The eldest of four daughters, she was born in Michigan and moved with her family to Houston when she was in third grade.
Spellings earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston and worked in an education reform comission under Texas Governor William P. Clements and as associate executive director for the Texas Association of School Boards.
Before her appointment to George W. Bush's presidential administration, Spellings was the political director for Bush's first gubernatorial campaign in 1994, and later became a senior advisor to Bush during his term as Governor of Texas from 1994 to 2000.
Following Rod Paige's departure as Secretary of Education, Spellings was nominated to the post of the Secretary of Education by George W. Bush on November 17, 2004 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 20, 2005 and sworn in the same day.
External links
- Bush's Schools Guru Expands Her Education Portfolio, Washington Post, 28 March 2001.
- Official White House bio