Arne Duncan pushes for ‘parent engagement’ — and gets some angry feedback
Education Secretary Arne Duncan seems to have a new favorite subject for the moment: parents and their engagement.
Seven years into his secretaryship, he recently released what the Education Department labeled “a set of rights to help parents seek high-quality education for their children.” His July Twitter chat was all about parental engagement, but it didn’t go quite the way he might have hoped; parents asked tough questions and he didn’t manage to “engage” them on those queries.
So what are the newly stated rights for parents? Duncan used the occasion of a speech in late June at the 2015 National Parent Teacher Association Convention and Expo in Charlotte to announce them. He said in part:
“I want to describe a set of educational rights that I firmly believe must belong to every family in America—and I hope you’ll demand that your leaders in elected and appointed offices deliver on them. They come together as a set of rights that students must have at three pivotal stages of their life, to prepare them for success in college and careers and as engaged, productive citizens.”
First, every child should have the right to attend a free, high-quality preschool…. Second, I believe all children have the right to high, challenging standards and engaging teaching and leadership in a safe, supportive, well-resourced school….[And] I believe we must see an affordable, high-quality college degree as every child’s right.”
The announcement, according to the Education Department, “complements work by the Education Department to reach out to parents—from the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, to tools that can help families and students select the best colleges for their needs, to support of Parent Training and Information Centers and Resource Centers.”
Who would argue with those rights? (Nobody I know.) The question for Duncan is what, over seven years, he has done to ensure those rights for parents.
Were his policies geared to achieving educational equity for each student? (No.) Or was his chief policy initiative something called Race to the Top, which forced states to compete for federal funds by promising to implement specific reforms Duncan favored, such as expanding charter schools and Arne Duncan pushes for ‘parent engagement’ — and gets some angry feedback - The Washington Post: