U.S. Schools Chief Arne Duncan Labors to Straddle Political Divide
Education Secretary Arne Duncan was riding to the airport in a black government SUV late last week, working his cellphone to try to save a plan to reduce interest rates on new student loans that is expected to face a vote in the Senate as early as Tuesday.
He called three Republicans and three Democrats who would be critical, and his message was the same to each. "We gotta bring this home," he recalls telling each senator.
Ruben E Reyes for The Wall Street Journal
'The only pressure I ever get is that I'm going too fast, but I think I'm going too slow. I have only 3½ years left,' says Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The outreach was emblematic of Mr. Duncan's term as the government's top education official. In a miasma of partisanship on virtually every front, education stands out as an issue where partisan lines are bent in strange directions and odd-bedfellow relationships are forming.
On student loans, for example, Mr. Duncan's problems are as much with some Democrats who want a sweeter deal on loan rates as with Republicans who want a tougher one.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, himself a former education secretary, got one of the calls from Mr. Duncan. "We reviewed our jobs to keep senators on