Obama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan

Who is Duncan, and How has his Nomination been Received?

Dec 20, 2008 Jeffrey Donaldson

Barack Obama has named Arne Duncan as his Secretary of Education. What are Duncan's goals? What criticism has he received?

Duncan began his career as a professional basketball player in Australia, where he tutored at-risk youth in his spare time. After returning to the United States, he was involved in a series of efforts to improve the public school system in Chicago, including directing the Ariel Initiative from 1991 to 1998, which focused on children in the South Side of Chicago (Dillon, 2008).

Duncan's Priorities to Date

Duncan’s main focus has been:

  • Teacher quality
  • Changing failing schools
  • When to close failing schools

Sam Dillon's (2008) in depth New York Times profile provides greater detail regarding Duncan's career.

Duncan has also supported pay for performance and charter schools, issues which teacher’s unions oppose.

Ironically, Duncan once threatened to sue the U.S. Department of Education (the organization which he will head) when the DOE refused to provide No Child Left Behind funding for the afterschool programs (Pickert, 2008).

Left-wing Criticism

Jesse Sharkey (2008), writing for Counterpunch.org, describes the negatives of Arne Duncan’s choice:

  • Test score driven school choice
  • Supporter of non-union schools
  • Lack of emphasis on racial desegregation

Right-wing Criticism

Debra Moore, writing for the “Exposing Liberal Lies” blog, describes Duncan’s criticism by Conservative Christians for creating a gay friendly high school, which runs counter to their beliefs on human sexuality (Moore, 2008).

Moore also discusses Duncan’s participation in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an effort from 1995 to 1999 to improve the school system, in which University of Chicago Education professor and former Weatherman William Ayers participated. Moore believes this connection is an indication of an intention to “radicalize” Chicago schools (Moore, 2008).

Praise From Many Sides

Steven Levitt, writing for the New York Times, speaks warmly of his experience with Duncan in exposing teacher doctoring of high stakes standardized testing. He describes Duncan’s response to the information: “Arne embraced our results, even allowing us to do audit testing to confirm our hypotheses. Eventually, a handful of teachers were fired (Levitt, 2008).”

As E.J. Dionne writes about Duncan, Obama’s pick is consistent with Obama’s position as a post-partisan politician, and may be art of an effort to make education reform part of the Democratic Party's agenda.

Duncan supports a statement by teachers groups which does not place the blame for low levels of learning entirely on schools, but calls for Early Intervention, after school and summer programs.

Duncan also has signed a statement by the Education Equality project offered by “tough on union” individuals which calls for “an effective teacher in every classroom, and an effective principal in every school, by paying educators as the professionals they are, by giving them the tools and training they need to succeed and by making tough decisions about those who do not."

The Middle Road

Although not without criticism, Arne Duncan, if confirmed, seems poised enter the Department of Education as a reformer who can also include both sides of the table in negotiations.

Sources

Dillon, S. (2008). "Arne Duncan." NY Times. Available: topics.nytimes.com [2008, December 20].

Levitt, S. D. (2008). "Nobody Better than Arne Duncan." NY Times. Available: freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com [2008, December 20].

Moore, D. (2008). "Education Secretary Arne Duncan." Exposing Liberal Lies. Available: exposingliberallies.blogspot.com [2008, December 20].

Pickert, K. (2008). "Education Secretary Arne Duncan." Time.com. Available: time.com [2008, December 20].

Sharkey, J. (2008). "Arne Duncan's Privatization Agenda." Counterpunch. Available: counterpunch.org [2008, December 20].

The copyright of the article Obama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan in Educational Issues is owned by Jeffrey Donaldson. Permission to republish Obama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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Comments

Feb 27, 2009 10:30 PM
Guest :
This web site does not include information on Mr. Duncan's graduate studies. I think that that kind of information is crucial in order to truly understand Mr.Duncan's credentials. The average teacher is required to get a Master's degree within the first five years of teaching. We need to know that our "leader" is following the rules.

I think fixing the problems in our over crowded schools that have watered down curricula is a better answer than "No Child Left Behind." All that has done in NY City is force more children into the better over crowded schools. We need to have the arts restored in all of our schools across the country. The fact that Mr. Obama writes with his left hand tells you that he is a"right brain" person. Which explains his creativity.

I agree with Mr.Duncan that we need to raise the standards for teaching. But I can tell you from first hand experience that destroying the unions is not the answer. Unforunately there are some poor administrators, who will fire a creative, strong teacher for all the wrong reasons if there is no union to protect a good teacher. The unions have their faults but the good teachers would also suffer if you get rid of the unions.

Edward Harrison Gordon
Brooklyn,N.Y.
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