President Taps Spellings as New Secretary

By Michelle R. Davis and Erik W. Robelen

President Bush has named Margaret Spellings, his top domestic-policy adviser, as his choice to be the next U.S. secretary of education.

If confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Spellings, 46, will continue a history of working with the president that dates back to Mr. Bush’s successful first run for the Texas governorship in 1994. Though she spent the last four years working in the White House on a variety of issues that included health care, immigration, welfare reform, and the environment, Ms. Spellings has long been the president’s most relied-upon adviser on education.

“The issue of education is close to my heart, and on this vital issue there’s no one I trust more than Margaret Spellings,” Mr. Bush said in announcing her...