President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Chicago schools executive Arne Duncan as his education secretary at an event in the city today, transition aides said…
Duncan, 44, has been chief executive of the Chicago public schools since 2001, steering the nation’s third-largest school district, which has more than 400,000 students. Duncan was raised in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, not far from Obama’s home, and is a longtime friend and basketball partner of the president-elect. He graduated from Harvard University, where he was co-captain of the basketball team, and he played professional basketball in Australia from 1987 to 1991. He returned to Chicago to direct the Ariel Education Initiative, which creates educational opportunities for youths on the South Side.
In 1998, Duncan joined the Chicago public school system, where he served as deputy chief of staff. Three years later, Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Duncan chief executive.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who visited a Chicago elementary school last week to highlight Duncan’s pay-for-performance program, showered praise on the executive in an interview with The Washington Post last week. Spellings called him “a really good school leader.”
“I do think he’s a reform-oriented school leader who has been a supporter of No Child Left Behind and accountability concepts and teacher quality,” she said. “He’s a kindred spirit.”
Dodge Renaissance Academy was a failing school on Chicago’s West Side that the city shuttered in 2002. Duncan reopened the school as an academy where candidates for advanced degrees in education work in the classrooms. Duncan and Obama visited the school three years ago and hailed it as a successful model for teacher residency programs that could be replicated in the toughest schools nationwide.
Although Obama has not detailed how he will try to fix the nation’s struggling schools, he has promised to recruit an “army of new teachers,” create better tests and give public schools more funding. The president-elect has not taken sides in a debate between reform advocates and powerful teachers unions, and choosing Duncan seems to be a consensus move likely to appeal to both.
Duncan is embraced by the teachers unions, who have been concerned about high-stakes testing and worry about merit pay being tied to test scores, as well as reformers, who favor charter schools and tougher standards.
Duncan partnered with the Chicago Teachers Union to develop a performance-pay plan for the city’s teachers, while also supporting charter schools. Democrats for Education Reform wrote in a policy paper that Duncan “has credibility with various factions in the education policy debate and would allow President Obama to avoid publicly choosing sides in that debate.”
I suppose Mr. Duncan has no critics. At least none that the crackerjack reporters at the Washington Post can find.
The Washington Post offers us only praise for Duncan emanating from sources such as (surprise, surprise) Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and the Chicago Teachers Union. Are they kidding? In light of recent revelations out of Cook County, this list looks like an endorsement out of a politician’s scarier nightmares. The Mayor of Chicago and a Chicago Union has his back? How encouraging.
And what of Bush Education Secretary and “No Child Left Behind” advocate Margaret Spellings? Is this supposed to be an example of bipartisan support for Duncan? It is not comforting to know that Spellings, flag bearer for “No Child Left Behind” which has been a stone tied around the neck of the Bush Administration almost since day one, feels that she and Duncan are “kindred spirits.”
If all this weren’t evidence enough that Mr. Duncan is right for the job, we have the endorsement of his former Hyde Park neighbor, basketball buddy, and Chicago machine associate, Barack Obama. Well, I’m sold!
If you are seeking examples of Mr. Duncan’s measurable successes, you’ll have to look elsewhere. The Washington post is silent on this topic. Perhaps these examples are tucked away with all the examples of President-elect Obama’s measurable successes as a “community organizer.”
More insight at Michelle Malkin.
