Damning arne duncan Article

[Dinger]

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175022

Tomgram: Andy Kroll, Will Public Education Be Militarized?

"Yet a closer investigation of Duncan's record in Chicago casts doubt on that label. As he packs up for Washington, Duncan leaves behind a Windy City legacy that's hardly cause for optimism, emphasizing as it does a business-minded, market-driven model for education. If he is a "reformer," his style of management is distinctly top-down, corporate, and privatizing. It views teachers as expendable, unions as unnecessary, and students as customers.

Disturbing as well is the prominence of Duncan's belief in offering a key role in public education to the military. Chicago's school system is currently the most militarized in the country, boasting five military academies, nearly three dozen smaller Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps programs within existing high schools, and numerous middle school Junior ROTC programs. More troubling yet, the military academies he's started are nearly all located in low-income, minority neighborhoods. This merging of military training and education naturally raises concerns about whether such academies will be not just education centers, but recruitment centers as well

Under Duncan, the critical voices of parents, community leaders, students, and teachers regularly fell on deaf ears. As described by University of Illinois at Chicago professor and education activist Pauline Lipman in the journal Educational Policy in 2007, Renaissance 2010 provoked striking resistance within affected communities and neighborhoods. There were heated community hearings and similarly angry testimony at Board of Education meetings, as well as door-to-door organizing, picketing, and even, at one point, a student walk-out.



Then there's the Renaissance Schools Fund. It oversees the selection and evaluation of new schools and subsequent investment in them. Made up of unelected business leaders, the CEO of the system, and the Chicago Board of Education president, the Fund takes the money it raises and makes schools compete against each other for limited private funding. It has typically been criticized by community leaders and activists for being an opaque, unaccountable body indifferent to the will of Chicago's citizens.



On edit: Yes, I know this is a couple of months old.

[LWolf]

1. He was probably thinking,

"I'm going to be in trouble with teachers again."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352785,00.html

[Dinger]

2. Well, In A Word (or two),

he is.

[LWolf]

8. My two words:

DAMNED STRAIGHT.

:grr:

[Metta]

3. Here's another one - Obama's Betrayal of Public Education? Arne Duncan & Corporate Schooling.

http://www.truthout.org/121708R Really nasty stuff. Makes me just shake my head that Obama is excluding the people with the most to gain or lose in their education.

[Dinger]

4. Why Did My President Do This?

Why? I keep asking myself this question.

[Metta]

7. Yes, he's following bad advice about intelligence, finance and education and interior isn't looking

so good, either. Also, I think militarizing the southern part of our country or our police is a good idea.

[Smarmie Doofus]

13. 'Cause he's out of the loop. Doesn't use public schools in DC.

Didn't use 'em in Chicago ( *Duncan's* public schools !!)

Takes advice from people like Duncan who never taught, never attended public school, appear to understand little about how or why they ( PSs) function or do not function.

It's all academic to them, no pun intended.

[DURHAM D]

5. FEMA for many years was the dumping ground for "friends" who need jobs.

After Katrina FEMA can no longer serve as the place to put the loyal but incompetent friends or children of friends. Looks like the Dept. of Education is the place to stick them now.

[Dinger]

6. Touché DURHAM, Touché My Friend (nt)

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Will he be calling us terrorists?

:)

[Dinger]

10. No, But I Think he'd Find A Roundabout Way Of Doing Exactly That

Easily, he is President Obama's worst pick.

[tonysam]

11. Bar None, Arne's the Worst.

Obama's picked some turkeys, including our favorites Larry and Timmy, but Arne takes the cake.

[Dinger]

12. What's The Difference Between him and spellings?

I'll have to do a little research. Then again, maybe not.

[tonysam]

14. I'd Say Save Your Time.

:)