"However, what I do find contemptuous is when guys who are lucky enough to get a chip in the big game without earning it look back at those who haven’t and say: Pull yourself up by your bootstraps like I did. Duncan has spent the better part of last year traveling the country and challenging ‘ate up’ urban educators to duplicate his Chicago Public Schools (CPS) success by doing as he did. The problem is, there was no success. And those of us, who call the People’s Republic of Chicago, home, know it. Finally, the cardboard school reform of the Duncan era, which followed the smoke-and-mirrors of the Paul Vallas regime, has been officially ‘outed.’"