Last updated on: 2/3/2009 | Author: ProCon.org

Rod Paige, PhD Biography

Title:
Seventh United States Secretary of Education
Position:
Pro to the question "Should the Words “under God” Be in the US Pledge of Allegiance?"
Reasoning:

“While I am confident this opinion will be overturned, it is more than a little disturbing that our nation’s Constitution could be read this way. It stretches the First Amendment beyond credulity, and it places the opinion of unelected judges above the plain meaning of the Constitution and the nation’s history, let alone common sense.”

Press Release, Department of Education, June 27, 2002
Involvement and Affiliations:
  • Seventh U.S. Secretary of Education, 2001-2005
  • National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators, 2001
  • Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Prize in Education, 2000
  • National Association of Black School Educators’ Superintendent of the Year, 2000
  • Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (HISD), 1994-2000
  • Richard R. Green Award, 1999
  • Trustee and officer on the Board of Education of the HISD, 1994-1989
  • Served for 10 years as the dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University (TSU)
Education:
  • PhD, Indiana University
  • MA, Indiana University
  • BA, Jackson State University
Other:
  • Full name is Roderick Raynor Paige
Quoted in:
  1. Does the Phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance Violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause?