Obama and Arne Duncan – It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ?

Barack Obama chose friend and neighbor, Arne Duncan to fill the post of Education Secretary yesterday - to mixed reviews. Duncan, a reformer, is receiving raves from the right and cautious “acceptance from the teachers unions”.. His philosophy on managing the Chicago schools is similar to that of Mike Huckabee. Huckabee, in his 10plus years of Governor of the state of Arkansas, introduced sweeping reforms in education:

Arkansas' ACTAAP system is widely hailed as one of the nation's best school accountability programs. Huckabee has pushed through reforms in Arkansas that have significantly expanded the availability of college scholarships, increased the number of charter schools and established new approaches to workforce education.

It goes without saying that Huckabee had his share of problems with the Teachers Union, and so has Duncan:
from “Substance News”, an organization defining itself as “Defending The Public Schools for over 30 years”:

Duncan attacks union schools, Stewart signs “solidarity” letter to Duncan

The most dramatic weakening of the union became evident in December 2007. Immediately prior to the December Chicago Board of Education meeting, Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan announced that he was going to close or reorganize somewhere between 147 and 175 schools because of what he called “underutilization.”

Despite widespread demands to know both the criteria for “underutilization” and the names of the schools, Duncan ignored the facts, kept the lists secret, and allowed the system’s 48,000 workers to go into the Christmas holidays with huge questions about their futures. For four weeks, speculation in the schools and on blogs that discussed CPS business ran wild. More than 100 separate bloggers posted to the largest CPS blog (District299.com) between the day of the Board of Education meeting and the beginning of the new year. But while teachers and other staff working in the schools were left to wonder whether their holiday presents would include the loss of their jobs, as had taken place when the school financial crisis had been declared in November and December 1979, the leaders of the CTU were mired in what even their own supporters have called “massive office politics.” During the Christmas holidays of 2007, union members across Chicago were worrying about whether their schools would be closed. They didn’t hear from their union, but Arne Duncan did. Marilyn Stewart was very busy. She was securing her position as “Chief Executive Officer” of the Chicago Teachers Union, beginning a purge of her own ranks, writing an unprecedented letter to the chief of the school system —completely ignoring the looming attack on the union’s 31,000 members embodied in the “underutilization” claims of Arne Duncan. In December 2007, Stewart issued two remarkable documents (both reprinted in this issue of Substance). Neither of them dealt with the crisis approaching for the union’s members. One was dramatically friendly to CEO Arne Duncan, the boss who was planning to destroy the jobs and careers of hundreds of CTU members this school year and more in years to come, while even more dramatically hostile to one of the elected leaders of her own union. The other revealed more between the lines than it admitted in print. One came out the week before Christmas, the second the day after Christmas. Neither has been publicly acknowledged by the union itself, but the authenticity of both have been verified to Substance by union officials and to blog leader. On December 17, Stewart circulated a memo to union staff entitled “Changes in Day-to-Day Operations of the Administrative Office.” A complete copy of that memo is reprinted on Page Eight of this Substance.

That said, Duncan’s coming out of Chicago as a reformer, which, given the history of Chicago in general, that’s one serious accomplishment.

It is no wonder then, that some on the right are applauding Obama’s latest cabinet choice. For many, the role of educator has been defined for the past forty years as Union member first, educator second. A case in point from the recent article at Aaron Proctor’s blog:” 25 Wrongs Don’t Make A Right”. Proctor minces no words when describing the state of the Philadelphia School System and 25 teachers who recently participated in the “Call Out Gay” day to protest California’s proposition 8, (which was heavily supported by the teachers unions to the tune of $1,000,000) - thereby placing the union’s agenda above the needs of their students. Again, that is just one story, in one school district, in one state – however, similar stories, different issues and different agenda’s, can be found across the country – It is not the public school system per se, that needs reform, it is that the teacher’s union needs to take a more active role in education, rather than political agenda’s.

This is the second cabinet choice that has made this moderate conservative feel more secure with the incoming administration. (Clinton as Secretary of State was the first – she had a stellar national defense record in her tenure in the Senate). So much for neighborhood associations - for all intents and purpose, Duncan appears to be Ayers polar opposite. Great call on the part of Mr. Obama – one has to give credit where credit is due.