When the summons arrived last week, Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos hurriedly climbed into his government car and sped to the White House, where chief of staff John Sununu was waiting. Sununu bluntly informed Cavazos that the President wanted him to step down by the end of the month. The former Texas Tech president replied that he would leave sooner than that. By week's end Cavazos exited, ending a lackluster 2 1/2 years as the nation's top education official.
Cavazos' ouster was long overdue. The genial but ineffectual Reagan holdover -- one of two Hispanics in George Bush's Cabinet -- had long...