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Arne Duncan exposed by Bill Ayres as well as real Chicagoans
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Either I was wrong, or it’s a trick. The former would delight my ex-wives and the latter encourage my enemies. If the comments posted on William Ayres’ website last January aren’t part of a disinformation campaign, then the Obama-Ayres tag team I've dreaded for the last couple of years was just a harmless Cheshire cat illusion. Ayres, in response to Duncan’s selection as U.S. Secretary of education wrote:
‘During Duncan’s tenure in Chicago, a group of hunger striking mothers organized city-wide support and won the construction of a new high school in a community that had been underserved and denied for years. Duncan didn’t support them and he certainly didn’t lead the charge. If they’d waited for Duncan to act they’d likely be waiting still. Teachers at one school refused to give one of the endless standardized tests, arguing that this was one test too many, and they organized deep support for their protest; Duncan didn’t support them either, but they won anyway. If they’d waited for Duncan, they’d be waiting still. Why would anyone sit around waiting for Arne now?’
It does not sound like Ayres is a Duncan fan, but then we once supported Saddam Husayn. Weatherman Bill isn’t Nice Guy Duncan’s only Chicago detractor. Catherine Gewertz of Education Week has just written that the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago revealed that the celebrated elementary school test score gains attributed to the reform efforts of Arne Duncan had more to do with changes in state tests and the weakening of state standards than any real improvement in student achievement. Furthermore, the report stated that the marginal (and questionable) gains reported, dissipate by high school. Half of the students at non-selective enrollment high schools drop out, the report said, and of those left to take the 11th grade test, more than 70% fall short of state standards, a trend that has been static for the last few years. Fewer than seven percent of the students in Chicago’s non-selective enrollment schools meet ACT’s college readiness benchmarks. The Commercial Club report called the vast majority of Chicago high schools, abysmal. (these aren't just statistics, these numbers translate to lost lives)
Duncan is a nice guy who happened to be in the right place at the wrong time for American children who aren’t fortunate enough to have chosen middle-class parents who can protect them from the Arne Duncan National Charter School System. Why he and his basketball buddy want millions of working class children in institutions with no, AS YET, proscribed structure, curriculum, or value system has yet to be revealed. Until it is, avoid white rabbits, three-legged unicorns, and Bill Ayres.
In normal periods of chaos and disillusionment, the U.S. Secretary of Education is as irrelevant as the deputy assistant undersecretary for small island nations populated by bald men with bad breath. But times ain’t normal no more; this education czar has more money than an unaudited offshore hedge fund. That is why this particular nice guy is dangerous. He’s got the key to the treasury and he’s from Chicago! Arne walks right into your town, and with a straight face, tells you to blow up your school system, and replace it with the toy charter school models he played with while he was here. There are less than 60 charters out of 600 Chicago schools, and many of those are suspect, if not marginal performers. Where is the BEEF!
Besides, charter schools are no panacea for a crippled school system. Yesterday, our Education in the News Examiner wrote, ‘Many parents opposed charter schools due to the increasing fraud element involved in start-up charter schools and the lack of regulation. There have been many bad charter schools profiled in the media, that take advantage o public school funding.’
Anyone who can become the nation’s number one educator without ever running a single school, has to be more than just lucky, so Duncan must know what he’s doing. The question is: why is he doing it to us?
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