Lauro f cavazos biography

It was here where he discovered his love for biology. He later transferred to Texas Tech University.

Lauro f cavazos biography: Lauro Fred Cavazos Jr. was

There he received bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in zoology. He went on to earn a doctoral degree in physiology from Iowa State University. He taught at the Medical College in Virginia and at the Tufts School of Medicine, where he served as dean for five years. He returned to Texas Tech in to become president, the first Mexican American and first graduate of Texas Tech to hold that position.

Then came politics. InReagan appointed Cavazos secretary of education, making him the first Mexican American or Hispanic to hold a presidential Cabinet-level appointment. His nomination was unanimously accepted by the Senate on Sept. He served under both presidents Reagan and George H. His appointment was not without controversy. He fell out of favor with the Mexican American delegation in the Texas Legislature.

Texas was in the midst of a lawsuit charging the educational finance system for public schools was not equitable.

Lauro f cavazos biography: Lauro Fred Cavazos Jr. (January 4,

Her children became the first students of Mexican descent at the formerly segregated school. It would not be the first barrier that Lauro Cavazos breached. After graduating high school Cavazos joined the Army. After his hitch ended he returned to Kingsville and told his father that he intended to become a commercial fisherman.

Lauro f cavazos biography: Lauro Fred Cavazos, a

He transferred to Texas Tech University, whose Lubbock campus was about as far away from Kingsville as he could get and still be in the Lone Star State. He graduated from Texas Tech in with a degree in zoology and then earned an MS there in cytology. He next traveled to Ames, Iowa where he earned a Ph. Cavazos comes to this post at a time when the medical school is embarking upon a new era of academic excellence.

This is particularly fitting since he has been a major force in this growth. I am pleased that his leadership both as an academician and a high-level administrator will continue to benefit the School of Medicine. He played an instrumental role in planning the schools of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences. As reported in The New York Timeshis leadership of Texas Tech made that university the largest school in the nation to be led by a Latino.

Reagan had taken office talking about the radical step of abolishing the Department of Education altogether. But Bennett persuaded Reagan otherwise and used his cabinet post as a bully pulpit, encouraging local reforms he approved of and making a name for himself as a spokesman for conservative values on education. Bennett was outspoken and highly partisan while crusading for more parental choice in schools, stronger core curriculums, and a return to basic educational values—all ideas that the right wing of the Republican party cherished.

Cavazos's selection probably came as no surprise to Cavazos, since he had known for eight years that the president was interested in having him on his team. Reagan's transition team had actually approached Cavazos inwhen Reagan was first elected to office, to explore the idea of a cabinet position, but at the time Cavazos had just assumed the presidency of Texas Tech and wanted to stay there for awhile.

Moderate Lightning Rod When Bush won the election and took office, he retained Cavazos, not surprisingly; if nothing else, it was one way to fulfill a campaign promise to have a Hispanic member of the cabinet. But it was also a signal of a shift in policy toward more moderation. Cavazos, a Democrat, had a view of the education department that was diametrically opposed to Reagan's initial impulse to abolish it.

Cavazos wanted the federal government to be very active in education and Cavazos's personal style was very different from the feisty Bennett as well. Cavazos had a well deserved reputation as a quiet consensus builder, and he immediately set to work constructing bridges to Congress that Bennett had burned. Bennett had often attacked lauro f cavazos biographies and administrators, but Cavazos, by contrast, was from the ranks of these groups and understood and sympathized with their concerns.

Greeting the announcement of Cavazos's reappointment, Lamar Haynes, the president of the top teachers' union, the National Educational Association, called it a "hopeful sign that perhaps Mr. Bush will fulfill his campaign promise to become the 'education President. Though Cavazos made clear that he agreed with the Republican agenda of more school choice for parents, more accountability for school improvement, and uniform achievement standards, he also said a priority for him would be to make education more accessible to poor children.

He spoke in favor of increased federal aid for students and for programs in bilingual education. But he faced the continuing problem of lack of funding for such programs as Bush refused to push for major increases in education allotments. Still, Cavazos hoped to change the direction in which the department had been heading under Bennett. In a speech on vocational educationhe spoke of the "forgotten half" of students who quit school in high school or after graduation from high school and of the increasing problem of functional illiteracy among them.