Blog: Who were those VIPs on Duncan's list?
When in Chicago, Duncan kept list of VIP requests for prestige schools
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U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (AP).
More on Duncan’s VIP list in Chicago
It was disclosed this week that when Arne Duncan was superintendent of Chicago schools, he kept a list of people--including some prominent ones--who asked for help in getting certain children into the city’s best public schools.
The Chicago Tribune obtained documents and reported on details of nearly 40 pages of logs, showing requests from, among others, politicians and influential business people.
In a follow-up story, the Tribune reported that it had verified six instances in which the staff of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, or Daley's nephew, made admissions requests. Daley denied any role in the list.
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Private $$$ for teachers must be "legally binding"
If, for some reason, the private foundations Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee says are lined up to fund at least a portion of teacher salary increases don't deliver, the District is on the hook. That's the judgment of Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, as laid out in an Oct. 14, 2008 letter to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray.
Gandhi will soon be asked to evaluate a financial package in the proposed DCPS labor contract that is allegedly in the final stages of formation. Before any deal can be ratified by the council, he must provide a "certification of funding sufficiency," meaning that the money promised in the contract is actually available.
Ordinarily, this would involve Gandhi looking at the District's own resources -- not all that flush at the moment -- and rendering an opinion. In this case, he'll have to be persuaded that the potential private sources are stable enough to use as the basis for a contract with the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU).
"In the case of a labor agreement that involves the use of private
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