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December 15, 2008
Times reports: It’s Arne!
The very tall man who will be Obama's education secretary. (Via Flickr)
The New York Times’ Sam Dillon reports that Arne Duncan will be the next secretary of education. The president-elect is to announce tomorrow. Obama sources do not disclose to Dillon what Duncan will do about No Child Left Behind, testing, teacher quality, or tenure. And the mystery stays alive!
An easier-to-unwrap question I’d like to look into: Was Joel Klein ever actually in the running?
UPDATE: More context by request. Duncan, the schools chief in Chicago, is a safe choice that signals only what we had already been told, that when faced with all-out policy brawls, Obama would prefer not to pick a side. In the ongoing, raging war over education policy, Duncan had the stamp of both sides, the nameless reformers (idealocrat reformers?) and the teachers unions, or at least of Randi Weingarten, the union leader. By choosing Duncan as his education figurehead, Obama has avoided two wars.
Choosing Joel Klein of New York would have started a war with harder-line union members, and with Randi Weingarten, as well as with many academics who disagree with Klein’s methods. At the same time, choosing those academics’ preferred choice, Linda Darling-Hammond, would have been a virtual declaration of war against Teach For America and its increasingly powerful alumni network (which includes some Obama fundraisers). The organization believes that Darling-Hammond opposes its agenda and “reform” in general.
Now, all eyes will turn to the spots below Duncan, who is seen as a blank slate in terms of ideology or vision. Indeed, he hasn’t done much publicly to indicate where he stands in the Democratic Party’s education wars. He signed the petitions issued by both camps. In Chicago, he took on projects that are popular in urban districts across the country, opening new charter schools and many new small high schools, too. He received some criticism for not working closely enough with the community, but managed not to make enemies of the teachers unions, as Klein has done in New York.
In other words, he flies under the radar, and his next steps will be hard to predict. That means that who fills the positions beneath him in the education department will be crucial. Will Jon Schnur, namesake of the nameless reform movement, be named Duncan’s deputy, as the Democrats for Education Reform group wants? Or will Darling-Hammond, who led Obama’s transition team on education policy and was boosted by a petition with a shockingly long list of names? These appointments could determine the Obama administration’s direction on the unknown issues I mentioned above — No Child Left Behind, testing, teacher quality, and tenure. Until they are made, we still live in the mystery zone.
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December 16th, 2008 8:12 am
I have to admit that I don’t know a terrible lot about Arne Duncan, but the things I’ve read leave me pretty happy with his selection. He’s someone who doesn’t seem to view the education debate as an either/or issue between the forces of pure educational good and pure educational evil (unlike some other school leaders we may have been reading about). If he actually does try to straddle the middle and take the best ideas from both sides he may be the most positive development for educational policy in this country in a long time.
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December 16th, 2008 8:32 am
Living in Chicago I am so happy that he is gone. I feel bad for the rest of the country now, but at least he is gone. The man does not use a computer. This is kind of comical considering how our children need to learn how to use these wonderful devices, yet their leader has no clue how to use one. OUr test scores have gone up 4%. In polling that number is within the margin of error, in other words it could be a statistical anomaly that the test scores have gone up. Also I do not believe there has been any studies in regard to how many kids quit school when theirs is closed, instead of going to their new school. Maybe this idea might correlate to our crime rate skyrocketing in recent years? Either way, this is a horrible pick.
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December 16th, 2008 12:26 pm
Scott-Is that true? How do you know that Duncan doesn’t use a computer? I need evidence. If that IS true, we will be facing the biggest educational setback possible.
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December 16th, 2008 12:53 pm
His secretary prints out the emails he receives, he writes the response and the secretary responds. The man literally does not know how to use a computer. My source is my best friend who works for CPS in the Budgeting Office, he is high level and knows Arne quite well. Also when our city had the prtoest over the first day of school, the protest was announced a few weeks prior, the announcement was made at that point becuase the organziers knew Arne would be unable to comment on the issue.
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December 16th, 2008 1:09 pm
Hopeful also read the comments on the Suntimes website http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1333467,w-obama-arne-duncan-cabinet-121608.article. These are people from Chicago. MAny of us think this is a bad choice. It also validates the worst part of an Obama presidency in my mind. Let me stress this, I voted for Obama, but the thought that he would choose Chicago politics over the national interest did cross my mind. I did not think he would ‘honor’ Chicago like he has. I am extremely disappointed in many of his cabinet and advisor selections.
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December 16th, 2008 1:43 pm
This quote from Greg Palast worries me;
The problem with Duncan is not party affiliation. The problem is education philosophy. And Duncan is a Bush baby through and through, a card-carrying supporter of the program best called, “No Child’s Behind Left.”
At the heart of the program is testing. And more testing. Testing instead of teaching. When tests go badly, the solution is to push the low-test-score kids to drop out of school. If triage isn’t enough, then attack their teachers.
Here’s how Duncan operates this Bush program in Chicago at Collins High in the Lawndale ghetto. Teachers there work with kids from homeless shelters from an economically devastated neighborhood. Believe it or not, the kids don’t get high test scores. So Chicago fired the teachers, every one of them. Then they brought in new teachers and fired THEM too when, surprise!, test scores still didn’t rise.
The reward for a teacher volunteering for a tough neighborhood is to get harassed, blamed and fired. Now THAT’S a brilliant program, Mr. Duncan. But Duncan’s own failures have not gotten HIM fired. As long as his 20-foot jumpshot holds, he’s Mr. Secretary.
In no other cabinet department is the lack of expertise, lack of accomplishment, lack of a degree in the field found acceptable but in Education.
But what horrifies me more than Duncan’s lack of credentials is Obama’s kowtowing to the right-wing clique crusading against the teachers’ union and progressive education. The ill philosophy behind the Bush-brand education theories Duncan promotes, “Teach-to-the-Test,” forces teachers to limit classroom time to pounding in rote low-end skills, easily measured on standardized tests. The transparent purpose is to create a future class of worker-drones. Add in some computer training and - voila! - millions of lower-income kids are trained on the cheap to function, not think.
http://www.gregpalast.com/update-obama-slam-duncans-education/#more-2174
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December 16th, 2008 3:56 pm
worried doesn’t describe my feelings on this pick. disgusted is a better word. would it kill obama to pick a single progressive? by the way, teaching to the test is a problem beyond low-income schools - it has seeped into every aspect of education. there are even attempts to move this model into college education.
in the end, i think the so-called reform movement is about two things: 1. busting unions 2. simple solutions to complex problems. while i think many of the reformers motivations are cynical attempts to destroy teacher’s unions, others sincerely want to improve education. however, the latter really want it to be simple, that it isn’t drives them crazy. so instead they just continue to insist that the problem is simply bad teachers, and firing bad teachers will create a stellar education system. -
December 16th, 2008 6:25 pm
Dang, this is someone Bush would have picked. I thought I was voting against four more years of Bush-type decisions. Sad, very sad.
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December 16th, 2008 6:38 pm
plenty of ceo’s don’t use a computer
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January 14th, 2009 2:05 pm
[...] wars, though — Duncan has signed on to both major reform platforms, and has a history of walking a middle road between the Michelle Rhee/Joel Klein camp and the Laura Darling-Hammond camp — decent [...]
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