‘It’s hard to educate a kid that’s dead’ — Education Secretary Arne Duncan
“It’s hard to educate a kid that’s dead.” — Arne Duncan
I point out this quote, from an interview that Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave to my Post colleague Emma Brown, not for any profound insight that it offers but as a suggestion of what he may be doing when he leaves his post on Dec. 31.
Duncan, who is returning to Chicago, has long been an advocate of stricter gun laws. Speaking with PBS’s Gwen Ifill in December 2012, just after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 26 children and adult staff members dead, his eyes teared as he recalled people he knew from his past who had died from gunshot wounds. He then joined more than 350 university presidents to collectively urged Congress to approve stronger gun-control measures — and said he believed that federal lawmakers won’t take such action unless Americans from outside Washington apply the pressure.
In his interview with Brown, Duncan made clear that he will work on gun control in some way after he officially vacates the post he has held for seven years. He told Brown:
Education’s always going to be my life’s passion, I’m going to keep finding ways to do education, but it’s hard to educate a kid that’s dead. It’s hard to educate a kid that’s living in constant fear. So will this be a piece of what I work on? Absolutely. It’s a national issue, and, obviously, it’s particularly acute back home in Chicago. I can’t go home and not try and help. I don’t have easy answers, but I’m sure going to try.
There is no doubt that Duncan was the most powerful education secretary in ‘It’s hard to educate a kid that’s dead’ — Education Secretary Arne Duncan - The Washington Post:
