Paul Horton: Pseudo Democracy: Duncan Double Dribbles in Chicago
Guest post by Paul Horton.
You may have heard about the Common Core Forums in New York, otherwise known as "the attack of the special interests." New York Education Commissioner John King had a hissy fit when he was forced to listen to a few folks who not so gently disagreed with his ideas about Education Reform.
The Chamber of Commerce has also led a circus parade around the country in support of the Common Core. When a major employer comes to town and says it's Common Core or the highway to the dormitory factory in some brand new Chinese city, how can we yokels have any doubts about standards as potentially unemployed citizens?
So when I got word through the campus e-mail chain that Arne Duncan would be speaking at a "Forum on the Implementation of the Common Core Curriculum" (Oct. 25) across the street, I said to myself, I have got to see what these Forums are all about. So I signed up on the "Eventbrite" page.
Given the fact that Arne's popularity has tanked and that we have a huge number of aging friends ofBill Ayers in our strange neighborhood mix of neoliberal Nobel Prize winners or Prize-winners-in-