1st Latino Named to Cabinet : Texas Tech’s President Will Head Education

President Reagan today appointed the first Latino to the Cabinet by nominating Texas Tech University President Lauro F. Cavazos to succeed William J. Bennett as education secretary.

Reagan, noting the Cabinet “first,” said, “This is a proud day . . . for all Americans.”

“It’s hard right at this moment to think of a more exciting moment,” said Reagan, who appeared in the White House briefing room with Bennett and Cavazos, 61.

Asked whether he had selected Cavazos because of his heritage, Reagan said, “I didn’t even ask him that.” Reagan said he picked Cavazos because he was “the best-fitted man to succeed” Bennett.

Bush’s Promise

Vice President George Bush, in a speech to the League of United Latin American Citizens in Dallas last July 6, had pledged to name a Latino to the Cabinet if he is elected to succeed Reagan.

Asked today if he allowed Bush to influence the decision, Reagan replied, “No, I’m just still working at the job here.”

Bennett said he is ready to turn over to Cavazos “the apple, the pencil and the key” to the Cabinet officer’s door.

Reagan called Cavazos “a distinguished educator.”

“With his administrative skills and his many accomplishments in the field of education, Dr. Cavazos is an ideal selection for this Cabinet post,” the President said.

Ranch Foreman’s Son

Cavazos is a native of south Texas and the son of a foreman of the Santa Gertrudis Division of the huge King Ranch.

He has served as president of Texas Tech since 1980 while also heading the Texas Tech University Health and Sciences Center. He was the first Texas Tech graduate and first Latino to hold those two posts.

Previously, he was a member of the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine as professor of anatomy and earlier had taught at the Medical College of Virginia.

Reagan also used the occasion to pay tribute to Bennett, calling the departing Cabinet secretary the “best thing to happen” to American education.

‘Educational Meltdown’

In early May, Bennett said he would resign in September to return to private life.

Bennett made headlines throughout his tenure with acerbic criticisms of teacher unions, school bureaucracy, colleges raising tuitions twice as fast as inflation, and the “Jim Crow math and back-of-the-bus science” meted out to black children in ghetto schools. He called Chicago’s schools the nation’s worst and said that system is in an “educational meltdown.”

Bennett plans to issue two new reports on a model elementary school curriculum and on improving colleges before he steps down, said Bill Kristol, his chief of staff. The college report will try “to shed some light on the black box of higher education” with practical advice for parents, policy-makers and others, he said.