When Rod Paige was growing up in 1940s rural Mississippi, his school used textbooks passed down from the white school three miles up the road. The American educational system was separate, but decidedly not equal.

When he was a junior at Jackson State, the Supreme Court outlawed segregation with its Brown v. Board of Education decision. American schools were started on the slow road toward integration.

Half a century later, as secretary of education, Mr. Paige has proclaimed that the country’s schools might be desegregated, but they’re still far from equal.

“The Brown chapter is now closed,” he told the Cato Institute in May, at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the landmark court decision. “The age of accountability and choice is just beginning.”

Tonight, when Mr. Paige takes the stage at Madison Square Garden, he will stand for many qualities the Republican Party wants to emphasize at this year’s convention. Topping the list are educational accountability, bipartisanship, and the powerful role of minorities in the Bush administration.

“He is a passionate and eloquent defender of children and a lifelong educator,” said an education analyst at the Heritage Foundation, Krista Kafer. “He’s presided over one of the administration’s most successful programs.”

The program in question, No Child Left Behind, has been one of the president’s most popular – and earliest – domestic messages. In the 2000 campaign, Mr. Bush talked up educational accountability and testing, presenting as a model the system Mr. Paige implemented when he was superintendent of the Houston Independent School District – and when Mr. Bush was the governor of Texas.

When the Texas duo arrived in Washington, they quickly advanced Mr. Bush’s agenda, winning bipartisan support for the reforms.

Even critics of No Child Left Behind praise the level of cooperation that engendered the reform. By December 2001, less than a year after Mr. Bush’s inauguration, House and Senate conferees agreed on the final details of the education bill, which was the first major change in national education policy since the Education Act of 1965. No Child Left Behind was signed into law in early 2002.

A Manhattan Institute Scholar, Jay Greene, who supports Mr. Paige’s notion of accountability, said that Mr. Paige stands for the president’s commitment to improving education – a priority for many voters. “I’m sure they have him in prime time because they think that he’s a draw to the party,” he said.

A Gallup Poll, conducted earlier this month, found that 53% of Americans are satisfied with the “quality of education students receive in kindergarten through grade 12.” That’s up from 36% during the election of 2000.

In addition to his education credentials, Mr. Paige is a visible reminder that the president has placed minorities in top-level positions. He is also a strong role model for how black Americans can support Republican politicians.

In a July 17 Wall Street Journal article, Mr. Paige wrote that he had a message for the leaders of the NAACP: “You do not own, nor are you the arbiters of, African-American authenticity.”

He accused the NAACP leaders of “naked partisan politics,” and called it “ironic” that “they would direct this vitriol at a president who has appointed more African-Americans to high-profile posts … than any other administration.”