Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Oh, and he’s Barry’s basketball buddy … Is this considered “cronyism”?

Thanks, Kurt for the “leg-work”.

Obama vows schools overhaul with new education secretary

President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday nominated Arne Duncan, the tough-minded Chicago schools superintendent, as his education secretary with a mandate to overhaul failing US schools.

At a news conference, Obama vowed new funding for schools plus new demands on teachers and parents, arguing it was “morally unacceptable for our children and economically untenable for America” to allow standards to slip further.

The president-elect, whose own daughters have attended private schools in Chicago, said “that in the long run, the path to jobs and growth begins in America’s classrooms.”

“When it comes to school reform, Arne is the most hands-on of hands-on practitioners. For Arne, school reform isn’t just a theory in a book — it’s the cause of his life,” Obama added.

“And the results aren’t just about test scores or statistics, but about whether our children are developing the skills they need to compete with any worker in the world for any job.”

Duncan, 44, is a former professional basketball player who has been the chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools, the country’s third largest school system, for seven years.

As the point man on education, he will be tasked with raising standards at struggling public schools while not antagonizing the powerful teachers’ unions that supported the Obama campaign.

Unlike many countries with highly centralized national education standards and curricula, the United States’ public education system is run overwhelmingly at the local level.

But Obama is vowing to overhaul President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, which is criticized for encouraging rote learning.

The legislation has tied federal funding for school districts to exam results, meaning that districts “teach to the test” in Obama’s words, rather overseeing a broader education.

On the campaign trail, the Democrat said Bush “left the money behind” by failing to match the legislation’s promises with adequate funding, and is promising now to hire an “army of teachers” and expand early education.

But he has been coy on the issue of school vouchers, an idea favored by many Republicans as a way for poorer children to get a better education, but which the unions say would condemn troubled schools to perpetual failure.

US schoolchildren were outperformed in one international education study released last week.

The math and science scores of US fourth- and eighth-graders — children aged roughly nine and 12 years old — were higher than the average set by The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.

But fourth graders in seven Asian and European countries outdid their American peers in math, while among eighth graders, children in five countries, all Asian, had better scores than the American kids.

Another study in April by the EPE Research Center and the America’s Promise Alliance said that three out of 10 US teenagers do not graduate from high school — with black and native American students doing worst of all.

However, thanks in part to the lavish endowments enjoyed by the Ivy League universities, higher education in the United States consistently tops global rankings.

Duncan, a Harvard graduate who played professional basketball in Australia from 1987 to 1991, returned to his native Chicago in 1992 to direct an initiative to create new opportunities for inner-city schoolchildren.

At the news conference, Duncan said education was “the civil rights issue of our generation and it is the one sure path to a more equal, fair and just society.”

“While there are no simple answers, I know from experience that when you focus on basics like reading and math, when you embrace innovative new approaches to learning, and when you create a professional climate that attracts great teachers — you can make a difference for children,” he said.
(AFP)

Now, here’s the thing … or three about Duncan:

1. Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Arne Duncan:

Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools

By STANLEY KURTZ - (WSJ)

[ ... ]

The Challenge’s work is still carried on today through to the bipartisan Chicago Public Education Fund, which coordinates closely Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan and Mayor Daley…

[ ... ]

2. Arne Duncan and A Gay High School For Chicago:

(Standing with members of the 2010 Renaissance Schools “design teams” today, Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan announces a proposal for 20 new schools)

Gay high school plan advances

by Carlos Sadovi - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Public Schools’ first high school designed for gay, lesbian and transgender teens is among 20 new schools recommended to the school board today by CPS Chief Arne Duncan.

The proposed schools range from technology-focused high schools to the School for Social Justice Pride Campus, which officials said would cater to but not focus exclusively on gay youth.

Backers said they envision a small high school offering a college-preparatory curriculum in which students would take four years each of English and math, three years each of foreign languages and science, as well as fine arts and physical education. It would be a performance school, meaning it would have the same staffing and oversight requirements as other district schools.

The announcement of the schools, which are expected to open in the fall of 2009 and 2010, took place at the Chicago International Charter School’s Ralph Ellison Campus, 1817 W. 80th St. Public hearings on the proposed schools are expected before the Board of Education votes on them Oct. 22.

“If you look at national studies, you see gay and lesbian students with high dropout rates…Studies show they are disproportionately homeless,” Duncan said. “I think there is a niche there we need to fill.”

Supporters have said the Pride Campus would help students find a safe school environment because studies have shown that gay youth are at a greater risk of dropping out of school and abusing drugs and alcohol, and are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide. A 2003 district survey shows that gay and lesbian youths are three times more likely to miss school because they don’t feel safe.

Opponents have called the move a misuse of public funds. At a recent public hearing on the proposal, some gay rights advocates have said the move would segregate these students and said the district should work more on fostering acceptance by mainstream students, teachers and other school officials.

The plan comes from the people who run the Little Village Lawndale High School for Social Justice. They say the new campus would be open to all students, but would seek to foster a violence-free atmosphere for students who are often targeted for their sexual identities.

Duncan has said that he envisions a school where about half of its students would be gay while the other have would be straight students with an interest in the social justice focus school officials want to foster.

New York has a similar high school, named for pioneering San Francisco politician Harvey Milk. Opened in 2003, the school has a student body of less than 100 that is largely African-American and Latino. In Chicago, officials expect a school of up to 600 students, and those familiar with the project expect a high population of minorities.

Officials said the school could open in 2010 at an undetermined site.

The schools announced today are part of the district’s Renaissance 2010 initiative, which calls for 100 new schools to be created by 2010. The district also wants to put six schools in its turn-around program.

3. Arne Duncan and Chicago’s failed public schools:

Arne’s Army – Marching, Protesting, Mobilizing and Shouting…Everything but Teaching

By Pat Hickey - (Chi Daily Observer)

Arne Duncan plays basketball, fills a great Hart/Marx Worsted Wool and Cotton Blend and does exactly what his betters tell him to think, do and say. Paul Vallas improved schools and that is why he is in New Orleans. Arne Duncan is headed for D.C. and Rufus Williams, Oprah’s Foundation former watchdog and current CPS School President will ease into Arne’s Johnson and Murphy gunboats.

This is Change I Expected!

Arne Duncan’s resume begins and ends with his lifelong friendship to John Rogers. John Rogers runs Ariel Capital Management. John Rogers placed his ex-wife Desiree Rogers into the lucrative position of Illinois Lotto Ball Tosser and then President of Peoples Gas and then State Farm Something or Other and now White House Social Director by dint of his managing Capital. Ariel Capital Management and John Rogers make kings and White House Appointees – ask Barack Obama. Ask Mayor Daley. Arne Duncan was placed into Paul Vallas’s back pocket by Mayor Daley at the behest of Ariel Capital Management’s John Rogers. John Rogers is heavier than Coho poop in the Lake that washes up on Hyde Park shores.

Arne Duncan has gotten the plum for keeping Chicago’s Public Schools right where they are wanted to be -victims and dumb. Now, America can expect to see mobilizing, marching and shouting, when public schools plunge into the educational loam just as deeply as Chicago Public Schools. Where is the National Winnetka? Who is the National Wilco? Folks, the Chicago Catholic School entrance exams are on January 10, 2009. Buck up and get your kids a real education! There are also great Lutheran, Dutch, Jewish, Muslim and Independent Schools for your kids as well; they are competitive and reliable. Hell, Leo just beat Simeon on the hardwood last Friday night (Leo Catholic with 225 students and Simeon Public High School with a cast of thousands).

School Choice? Forget it! . . until the 2010 Election cycle which will set the pace for 2012 POTUS Elections.

Arne Duncan is bringing Chicago’s Educational Triumph onto the National Stage. Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, and Paula Abdul . . . candy up those resumes! It won’t be that long. Oh, place a call or two to John Rogers as well.