Duncan: Both Activist and Centrist
When President Obama began divvying up some of the federal stimulus funds approved by Congress last year, he gave the Department of Education $70 billion. That’s more money “by a factor of a lot” than any of his predecessors ever had to work with, admits Arne Duncan, education secretary, in a New Yorker profile published last week and headlined, “Class Warrior.” He’s since been meting the largesse out to states who have shown progress in: raising standards, recruiting and retaining top teachers, tracking student and teacher performance, and turning around failing schools.
The size of the cash pile underscores Duncan’s close relationship with the president. The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools is an old friend of Obama’s: they’ve been basketball buddies for two decades. Duncan’s willingness to use market-based reforms gets applause from conservatives, the article notes, but they dislike his insistence on an activist role for the federal government, which liberals like, though they’re wary of the free-market approach. Ultimately, the magazine says, Duncan is very much a centrist, not unlike his boss in the Oval Office. And, it adds, he’s got the potential to be an uniquely influential secretary of education.
Filed under: K-12 Education News
