Duncan’s successor must make sure to partner with the disenfranchised
Reform should be done with communities, not to them
Arne Duncan will go down as the most influential secretary in U.S. history.
He maximized federal powers to push states to serve all students when those states clearly were not. But pushing from the top isn’t sustainable.
And after Duncan’s seven hard-fought years, we may have realized the zenith of federal authority because of Duncan’s tenure.
Although Congress is negotiating authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – the legislation that outlines the federal role – improvements will have to come from the bottom up for the foreseeabA bottom up approach may be for the better; black and brown families certainly can’t trust states to create equitable educational systems. Students of color are less likely to have experienced and effective classroom teachers.
States impose racially biased out-of-school suspension and expulsion policies that hurt black and brown communities. Merit-based student financial aid programs favor middle- to upper-income families instead of first-generation collegians. And the stubborn outcomes for black, brown and low-income families say more about a system of inequality than anything about student potential.
The same legislators who erode voting rights for minority groups, permit housing discrimination and enforce racist criminal justice systems also write public education policy. In education, the federal government has a similar role in protecting citizens from civil rights violations.
The historic inabilities of states to deliver quality public schools for disenfranchised groups consistently confirm the fed’s most important role – enforcing civil rights violations, especially those facilitated by state policy. Duncan served this role very well.
Black, brown and low-income folks need higher academic standards. The rigor behind Common Core had even middle class whites crying to opt out. Families and policymakers also need data that can tell us how well students are learning.
Duncan’s insistence for common metrics addressed this need. Families also need states to intervene when it’s clear that little is being done to turnaround failing schools. Duncan doubled down on Bush’s No Child Left Behind accountability system. The only relief states could receive from NCLB’s hard penalties was to accept a reform package from Duncan.Duncan’s successor must make sure to partner with the disenfranchised - The Hechinger Report:
