U.S. legislators give Obama’s education pick an astounding pass
News emanating from the U.S. Senate these days centers on Republican determination not to give even a passing glance to any nomination that President Obama sends to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court created by the recent death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. What got less attention was the astounding pass the Senate education committee just gave to Obama’s nominee as the new education secretary, John King.
During confirmation hearings late last week before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Acting Education Secretary John King was not asked one single direct question about the tumultuous 3 ½ years he spent as the commissioner of education in New York state. Not by Republicans, and not by Democrats.
Nobody, apparently, was interested enough in asking him to explain the turmoil in New York education during his tenure. What turmoil? As blogger Peter Greene succinctly wrote, “Under King, Common Core implementation was a disaster, teacher evaluation was a disaster, testing was a disaster,massive data gathering was a disaster, and having public meetings to manage public reaction to the other disasters was a disaster.”
King’s program sparked the largest testing opt-out movement in the country, with some 20 percent of all students refusing to take the Common Core standardized tests mandated by the state last spring. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who supported the principles of King’s reform, lost faith in his ability to lead the implementation. King left his job abruptly late last year — with some “goodbye and good riddance” messages, including one December 2014 newspaper editorial titled “Commissioner King’s Tone Deaf Legacy” — and was tapped by Arne Duncan, Obama’s long-time education secretary, U.S. legislators give Obama’s education pick an astounding pass - The Washington Post:
