WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of Education Roderick Paige is leaving the Bush Cabinet, a published report said Friday. Paige told the White House he plans to step down from his job next week and President Bush will accept his resignation, The Washington Post quoted a senior administration official as saying.
The official said Paige's likely replacement is Margaret LaMontagne Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser, who advised him on education issues when he was Texas governor.
Earlier this week, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans announced their resignations and both were accepted by the president.
Bush has nominated White House counsel Al Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft as the head of the Justice Department.
Spellings, like Evans and Gonzales, is a close personal supporter of the president since his days in Texas, the Post reported.
