The biggest irony in Chicago’s mass closing of schools
President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. (ed.gov)
There’s some deep irony in this:
In 2002, Arne Duncan, then the head of the Chicago public schools system, announced that he was closing three elementary schools because they had been failing students for years. It was the start of a strategy of closing down schools that were academically failing or under-enrolled and reopening them as a new school.
When Duncan was named education secretary in 2008 by Barack Obama, the president-elect praised Duncan’s record of closing and reopening schools — as if it was a strategy that enjoyed great success, according to this WBEZ story:
He’s shut down failing schools and replaced their entire staffs, even when it was unpopular. This school right here, Dodge Renaissance Academy, is a perfect example. Since this school was revamped and reopened in 2003, the number of students