State & Nation briefs

Enrollment growth boosts ASG's budget by $20,000

The Association of Student Governments will receive $20,000 more from UNC-system students this year, giving the group an annual budget of $170,000.

The association receives $1 in fees from every student in the system. The increase comes from the fact that the system's enrollment grew by 3.4 percent to a total of more than 189,000 students.

The ASG will use some of the newly budgeted money to pay a $17,680 service fee to the UNC-system Office of the President. This 10.4 percent fee - recently increased from 1.5 percent - is imposed on any agency using the office's financial services.

ASG President Amanda Devore has proposed that the leftover money - which totals $2,320 - be placed in the group's contingency fund. She will meet with Jamen Miller, ASG vice president for finance, in the next weeks to devise more substantive allocations of the money.

The association will convene Saturday at N.C. State University to discuss the new money and the UNC-system Board of Governors' decision to propose a 0 percent tuition increase.

Another Bush insider named to top-level Cabinet position

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Bush on Wednesday named White House domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings to be the country's next education secretary.

"The issue of education is close to my heart and on this vital issue there's no one I trust more than Margaret Spellings," Bush told her.

If confirmed by the Senate, Spellings would replace departing secretary Rod Paige in the cabinet-level job of overseeing the Education Department.

Spellings has overseen a range of domestic policy, from justice to housing, but education is an issue of deep interest.

She will take over leadership of the Education Department at a critical time. Many legislators, teachers and parents are frustrated by No Child Left Behind, which gives more attention to poor and minority kids but penalizes some low-income schools that fall short.