Everybody Loves Arne

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 13, 2009 10:10PM

It looks like former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan will face few - if any obstacles - on his way to becoming President-Elect Barack Obama's Education Secretary. Duncan came out of a two-hour senate hearing with nary a hair on his head ruffled. Obama's personal point guard also solicited praise from Republican members of the hearing committee. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson (GA), said of Duncan,"I've been involved in education in my entire public-service career and never had a more enjoyable conversation with anyone than I had with you when we met the other day. I want to commend you on what you've accomplished." And Rep. Sen. Richard Burr (NC) called Duncan one of "the two smartest nominees the president has appointed," the other being Nobel-prize winning physicist Dr. Steven Chu, Obama's nominee for Energy Secretary.

In his statement to the committee, Duncan said:

I come to you after serving as the head of America's third-largest school district, serving over 400,000 mostly poor and mostly minority students. I am very proud of Chicago's progress. We have had seven years of steady gains in test scores and attendance. Our dropout rate has steadily declined while college enrollment rates have risen. We have improved the quality of teaching through better recruiting and more support for existing teachers. We've held teachers and school leaders accountable for the performance of our children - all of our children. Where they've succeeded, we've rewarded them for their work. We worked hard to involve parents more deeply in the education of their children, recognizing that schools and teachers are no substitute for a mom or dad who reads to their kids and makes sure the day's homework is done.

This should all work out just fine. Because there's nothing wrong with the Chicago Public School system. Nope. Not at all.