Where Duncan went wrong
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan never should have said, as he did on a TV interview to be aired Sunday and Monday, that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans."
He was hurtful and insensitive. There were nearly 2,000 confirmed deaths from the storm and the floods.
Instead, he should have focused on why New Orleans schools attracted better resources, fresher ideas and a great influx of energetic teachers that they would not have gotten nearly as quickly if the disaster had not occurred.
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Duncan’s own Hurricane Katrina
When Education Secretary Arne Duncan said to a television reporter in an interview to air Sunday that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that happened to the New Orleans school system, I’m sure he wasn’t retroactively wishing a catastrophe to decimate the city and its school buildings.
But his statement concerns me nevertheless.
Here’s what he told Roland Martin for TV One’s “Washington Watch,” airing Sunday at 11 a.m. EST:
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No plan to move Ellington, until there is
The key players in the recent flap over the future of Duke Ellington School of the Arts have issued a joint communique, essentially reaffirming what Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said last week: there are no plans to move the school out of Georgetown until it gets its own state-of-the-art building.
The letter, dated Jan. 26 and addressed to Ellington students, parents and faculty, grew out of Rhee's meeting last Friday with members of the school's governing board, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project (DESAP). It is signed by Rhee, outgoing DESAP president Michaele Christian, head of school Rory Pullens and co-founder Peggy Cooper Cafritz.
"Both the Chancellor and the mayor are committed in the long term to a state of the art facility for Ellington, as well as the full engagement of the Ellington community in a transparent planning process," the letter states. "The more immediate focus will be on a renovation of the school in 2012, though if major funds are identified for a new facility in the shorter term, the renovation effort may be modified."