Text of Obama’s Farewell Speech to Duncan, and Duncan’s Response | deutsch29

Text of Obama’s Farewell Speech to Duncan, and Duncan’s Response | deutsch29:

Text of Obama’s Farewell Speech to Duncan, and Duncan’s Response

The following is my transcription of the October 02, 2015, announcement of US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s resignation, offered by President Obama and followed by a response from Duncan. The transcription is of this 9 1/2-minute video clip provided by Fox News. (Note that Fox News ends the clip before John King speaks.)

[Obama speaking] Arne Duncan is one of my longest serving Cabinet secretaries, and he’s been a friend for a lot longer than that. So, it’s with some regret and sorrow that I’ve accepted his decision to return home to our hometown of Chicago.

After more than six years of living in Washington, Arne’s wonderful wife, Karen, and their excellent kids, Claire and Ryan, who are also buddies of mine, wanted to move back home, and that’s meant in the interim a lot of time apart. So, I’ll be honest, I pushed Arne to stay– sorry guys. Uh, but, I also know from personal experience how hard it is to be away from your family on a sustained basis. So, while I will miss Arne deeply, he has more than earned the right to return home.

Take a look at what Arne’s accomplished over the last six and a half years: He’s one of the longest-serving secretaries of education in our history– and one of the more consequential. In just a few years, Arne and his team have delivered some incredible results at every stage of the educational experience. More than 30 states have upped their investment in early childhood education. Nearly every state in American has raised standards for teaching and learning and expectations for what our kids can learn. And our high school graduation rate is at an all-time high.

We helped millions more families afford college. More Americans are graduating from college than ever before. And that’s just scratching the surface. Arne’s done more to bring our educational system– sometimes kicking and screaming– into the 21st century than anyone else. America’s going to be better off for what he has done. It’s going to be more competitive and more prosperous. It is going to be more equal and more upwardly-mobile. It’s a record I truly believe no other education secretary can match.

Um. Arne bleeds this stuff. He cares so much about our kids, and he has been so passionate about this work. And everybody who interacts with him, including people who disagree with him on some issues never questions, uh, the genuineness and heart that he has brought to this job. So, I couldn’t be more proud of him, and for good measure, Arne also holds the record for most points scored in an NBA All-star game. [mild laughter and applause]

[Duncan’s expression is somber]

And he is my favorite partner in pick-up basket. Uh, the smartest player I know. Even though he’s very slow. [Laughter; Duncan smiles.] And he has no hops. [Duncan say something, inaudible.] He knows it’s true. I will say, watching Ryan, by the way, that the son will soon be surpassing the father because this young man has got game.

Now keep in mind, none of this change has been easy. And we still have a 

Text of Obama’s Farewell Speech to Duncan, and Duncan’s Response | deutsch29:

empathyeducates - The Curse of Market Place Fundamentalism and the Challenge of an Insurrectional Pedagogy

empathyeducates - The Curse of Market Place Fundamentalism and the Challenge of an Insurrectional Pedagogy:

The Curse of Market Place Fundamentalism and the Challenge of an Insurrectional Pedagogy

By Henry Giroux | Originally Published at Counter Punch. September 29, 2015 | Pierre Andrieu/Getty Images

Introduction

The forces of free-market fundamentalism are on the march ushering in a terrifying horizon of what Hannah Arendt once called “dark times.” Across the globe, the tension between democratic values and market fundamentalism has reached a breaking point. [1] The social contract is under assault, neo-Nazism is on the rise, right wing populism is propelling extremist political candidates and social movements into the forefront of political life, anti-immigrant sentiment is now wrapped in the poisonous logic of nationalism and exceptionalism, racism has become a mark of celebrated audacity, and a politics of disposability comes dangerously close to its endgame of extermination for those considered excess. Under such circumstances, it becomes frightfully clear that the conditions for totalitarianism and state violence are still with us smothering critical thought, social responsibility, the ethical imagination, and politics itself. As Bill Dixon observes:

T]he totalitarian form is still with us because the all too protean origins of totalitarianism are still with us: loneliness as the normal register of social life, the frenzied lawfulness of ideological certitude, mass poverty and mass homelessness, the routine use of terror as a political instrument, and the ever growing speeds and scales of media, economics, and warfare. [2]

In the United States, the extreme right in both political parties no longer needs the comfort of a counterfeit ideology in which appeals are made to the common good, human decency, and democratic values. On the contrary, power is now concentrated in the hands of relatively few people and corporations while power is global and free from the limited politics of the democratic state. In fact, the state for all intent and purposes has become the corporate state. Dominant power is now all too visible and the policies, practices, and wrecking ball it has imposed on society appear to be largely unchecked. Any compromising notion of ideology has been replaced by a discourse of command and certainty backed up by the militarization of local police forces, the surveillance state, and all of the resources brought to bear by a culture of fear and a punishing state aligned with the permanent war on terror. Informed judgment has given way to a corporate controlled media apparatus that celebrates the banality of balance and the spectacle of violence, all the while reinforcing the politics and value systems of the financial elite.[3]

Following Arendt, a dark cloud of political and ethical ignorance has descended on the United States creating both a crisis of memory and agency.[4] Thoughtlessness has become something that now occupies a privileged, if not celebrated, place in the political landscape and the mainstream cultural apparatuses. A new kind of infantilism and culture of ignorance now shapes daily life as agency devolves into a kind of anti-intellectual cretinism evident in the babble of banality produced by Fox News, celebrity culture, schools empathyeducates - The Curse of Market Place Fundamentalism and the Challenge of an Insurrectional Pedagogy:

Here Is What We Know About John King, The Next Secretary Of Education

Here Is What We Know About John King, The Next Secretary Of Education:

Here Is What We Know About John King, The Next Secretary Of Education

For one thing, he's a big fan of the Common Core.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is stepping down from his post in December to spend more time with his family, he announced Friday. President Barack Obama has already tapped John King Jr., former New York State education commissioner, to take Duncan's place.  

King will serve in an acting capacity, meaning he was able to forgo a formal nomination process in the Senate. 

King most famously served as the New York State education commissioner from 2011 until 2014. Last year, he moved over to the Department of Education, where he's currently a senior official. 

Here are a few other important things we know about the next acting secretary of education:

1. He Is A Fierce Supporter Of The Common Core

As commissioner, King made it a priority to quickly implement the Common Core State Standards.

These standards, developed by a group of governors, state education chiefs and education experts, are designed to make sure kids around the country are being held to the same rigorous math and literacy benchmarks. The Department of Education incentivized states to adopt the standards via federal grant money. New York adopted them before King's tenure, but he was the one to align the state's classroom curriculum and high-stakes tests with the benchmarks.  

 2. His Tenure As New York State Education Commissioner Was Riddled With Controversy

As a result of his dedication to the Common Core, King became a polarizing figure in New York.

Standardized tests associated with the Common Core are notably more rigorous than the ones previously given to the state's children. Parents decried the new system as their children's scores plummeted, and shared anecdotes about their newly anxious children. Many complained the state moved too quickly in its implementation of the standards, saying teachers and schools didn't have adequate time to prepare for the switch.

A coalition of education and parent groups called on King to resign. When he spoke to students and parents in forums around the state, thousands poured in and often criticized his policies. 

At the time, King said he understood parents' concerns, but stood steadfast in his commitment to the Common Core.

“We understand that implementation of the Common Core and teacher/principal evaluation in a time of limited resources has come with significant challenges,” King wrote in a 2014 letter to state education leaders. “The Board of Regents and I knew we would encounter a good amount of concern in the public forums. We want -- and need -- to hear from teachers, parents, and students as these important changes in practice occur in classrooms, schools, and communities across the State." 

3. He Is Committed To Diversity In The Classroom

 At a recent National Coalition on School Diversity conference, King emphasized the importance of integrated, racially diverse schools, according to Chalkbeat New York.

“Schools that are integrated better reflect our values as a country,” King said.

Under Duncan, the Education Department did not take action to desegregate the nation's increasingly racially segregated schools. But King told Chalkbeat that integration “has a long history and substantial evidence” of success.

4. He Has Experience In The Classroom

King, whose father was the first African-American school principal in Brooklyn, spent three years teaching social studies before he helped start a charter school in Boston. Later, he became one of the founders of Uncommon Schools, a charter school network that now has 24 institutions, according to the New York Times. 

Both of King's parents died by the time King was 12, and he attributes his success to the help of teachers.

"I grew up in Brooklyn, I lost my mom when I was 8, my dad when I was 12," King said Friday at a press conference. "New York City public school teachers are the reason that I am alive." 

"John was one of those kids that probably shouldn’t be in a room like this," Duncan  Here Is What We Know About John King, The Next Secretary Of Education:

Obama vs. teachers unions: It's still on

Obama vs. teachers unions: It's still on:

Obama vs. teachers unions: It's still on

John B. King Jr. might sound like the kind of Secretary of Education who could help repair the Obama administration’s fractured relationship with reliably Democratic teachers unions. Not only is he a child of a teacher and a former teacher himself, he credits his Brooklyn public school teachers with turning his life around.

King’s mother, a school guidance counselor, died when he was in fourth grade at P.S. 276 in Canarsie. His father, a retired teacher and school administrator, died a few years later. In a recent interview, King credited his teachers with steering a troubled orphan away from jail or death. “They made school a refuge for me,” King told me. They encouraged his talents, whether he was memorizing world capitals or acting in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and they inspired him to pursue a career in education.

But as deputy education secretary under Arne Duncan, whom he will replace in December, and before that as the top education official in New York state, King’s relations with unions have been as rocky as Duncan’s—and for that matter Obama’s. The unions often argue that the deep problems of urban education have their roots outside the school, with impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhoods stripped of hope. King worries about those problems, but like Duncan and President Obama, he worries even more about using them as excuses for problems inside the schools.

“Yes, we should have better health care and housing and criminal justice reform,” King told me. “But school can save kids’ lives. It saved mine.”

With the possible exception of trade, education is the issue where Obama has veered farthest from his liberal base. It’s historically a local issue, but Obama and Duncan, his pickup basketball pal from Chicago, have reshaped the national landscape, using carrots (like the Race to the Top competition for stimulus dollars) and sticks (like the threat of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Law) to nudge states into adopting reforms that unions hate.

By choosing King to succeed Duncan, the president is signaling that he cares more about continuing those fights—for higher standards, for charter schools, for standardized testing—than healing wounds or papering over differences within his party before the 2016 election.        

Duncan has been the public face of those differences; the National Education Association called for his resignation, while the American Federation of Teachers put him on an “improvement plan” like the ones school reformers have endorsed for incompetent teachers. He is leaving with U.S. graduation rates at an all-time high and dropout rates at an all-time low, but there has been a growing bipartisan backlash over some of his favored reforms, like the Common Core math and reading standards (derided as “Obamacore” by many conservatives) or the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations (derided as “test-and-punish” by unions). I recently mentioned to Duncan that it seems like the main theme uniting his reforms has been the idea that adults in the education system should be held accountable for making sure kids learn. "Just a little bit!" he responded.

Like King, Duncan is the child of educators—he teared up today while discussing  his late father, a professor at the University of Chicago, and his mother, who founded an after-school tutoring program in the downtrodden south side of Chicago—and he has sided with unions on issues like universal pre-K and increased school funding. But their anger over testing has overshadowed every other issue.

“He’s destroying what it means to teach, what it means to learn,” Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the head of the NEA, told me in a recent interview.

The backlash has been especially fierce in New York, where King helped implement the Common Core as well as a rigorous testing regime; this year, one in five students opted out of the statewide tests. Unlike Duncan, King is a former educator who used to teach high school social studies, but like Duncan, he got his start in management when he launched a charter school. And like Duncan, King was the subject of a vote of no confidence by the teachers union in New York.

Yesterday, a group of outspoken educators known as the Badass Teachers Association accused him of “dismantling public education by using corporate education reform tactics.”

“Sadly, at the same time we rejoice at the resignation of Arne Duncan, a man who has done more destruction to public education than any other secretary, we are horrified that President Obama has chosen to replace him with John King,” the BTA said.

But Obama has always taken the reform side of the public education wars; in The Audacity of Hope, he criticized liberals who “defend an indefensible status quo, insisting that more spending alone will improve educational outcomes.” His legacy in education isn’t as obvious as in health care or energy, but thanks to Race to the Top and his No Child Left Behind waivers, nearly every state has embraced higher standards. Most states have also adopted more aggressive testing regimes and ditched restrictions on charter schools. The House and Senate have both passed bills to roll back the federal role in education, but for now it has never been stronger.

Liberal critics often refer to the education reform movement as a “billionaire boys club,” noting its support from hedge fund managers as well as philanthropists like Bill Gates, the Walton family and Mark Zuckerberg. Its emphasis on tough standards and market-based competition does have a conservative pedigree; current Republican politicians don’t say nice things about Obama appointees, but former Republican Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana yesterday gushed about Duncan’s “valiant service…challenging the most intransigent and powerful special Obama vs. teachers unions: It's still on:

Private funding to keep charter schools open ‘uncertain,’ backers say | The News Tribune

Private funding to keep charter schools open ‘uncertain,’ backers say | The News Tribune:

Private funding to keep charter schools open ‘uncertain,’ backers say

The Washington State Charter Schools Association has acknowledged that it has not yet raised enough private money to keep Washington charters running for a full school year.

Following a state Supreme Court ruling in September that invalidated Washington’s charter school law, the private association had expressed confidence it would be able to raise an estimated $14 million in donations to keep the schools running for a year.

But in a motion filed Wednesday with the Supreme Court, the association appears to be backing down from that confidence as it makes a plea for continued public funding for the remainder of the school year.

Charter schools received their September state funding, according to the state charter school commission, the appointed government body that authorized seven of the state’s nine charter schools.

The association said in its court motion that it is aware of potential donors, and that both it and the individual schools are actively seeking contributions.

But the court motion adds that “the results are uncertain. It would be pure speculation to believe that all nine schools could raise enough to continue operating through this school year.”

The association says in a news release that continued public funding is crucial to keeping the schools open.

“We believe these are public schools and will remain public schools in the future,” said Tom Franta, who heads the association.

The association is asking the state Supreme Court to delay the effective date of its Sept. 4 ruling, which struck down the charter school law approved by voters in 2012.

The association asks that the court delay enforcing the ruling until June 30 to allow students already enrolled in charter schools to complete the school year there. Nine charter schools with nearly 1,300 students — including three schools in Tacoma — had already opened when the Supreme Court ruling was issued.

The association argues that forcing students — especially special education students — to transition to another public school now would be harmful to their education. The court document says that special needs students make up more than 10 percent of the population at eight of the nine charters.

The association also contends that some school districts might have trouble accommodating returning students. One example cited in its motion says that Gray Middle School and First Creek Middle School in the Tacoma School District would each need to absorb 30 sixth graders who are now at Destiny Charter Middle School in Tacoma.

Tacoma Public Schools spokesman Dan Voelpel said the district has the capacity to accommodate those students.

“Without knowing who the students are and where they live and which middle schools the parents would choose for their children, I can’t say which schools they would go to,” he added.

The court said in September that privately operated, publicly funded charter schools do not qualify as common schools under Washington’s constitution and therefore are not entitled to public funding. They are not common schools, the court said, because they are not controlled by elected boards. Instead, charters are governed by nonprofit organizations that appoint their own boards to oversee operations.

On Sept. 24, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion for reconsideration, asking the court to re-examine its decision. The court has given the charter association until Oct. 23 to file a similar request.

Angel Morton, president of the Tacoma Education Association, said in an opinion column onCrosscut.com that more than 1,000 educators have signed an online petition askingPrivate funding to keep charter schools open ‘uncertain,’ backers say | The News Tribune:

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/education/article37404117.html#storylink=cpy

Auditor ‘shocked’ by $71 million grant for charter schools | The Columbus Dispatch

Auditor ‘shocked’ by $71 million grant for charter schools | The Columbus Dispatch:

Auditor ‘shocked’ by $71 million grant for charter schools

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost said he’s shocked that the federal Department of Education gave Ohio a $71 million charter-school grant, given the state’s poor track record at ensuring that charters don’t misspend tax dollars.

“I figured we would be a couple of years away from being able to get back into contention for federal money,” Yost said on Friday, noting that a package of charter-reform bills stalled in the legislature this summer and still haven’t become law.

The state hasn’t received federal charter-school grant money in recent years “because the feds didn’t think we were the best of the best,” Yost said.

He said his office will be watching.

“My concern is that it is well-spent with proper monitoring. We’re going to haul out the microscope on this. We’re going to have active observation.”

The Dispatch reported this week that draft grant-application documents released by the department last month show that they described Ohio as a beacon of charter oversight. A few days later, David Hansen, the state official leading the grant effort, resigned for scrubbing data to make charter sponsors look better than they were.

Asked this week if the U.S. Department of Education was aware of the circumstances surrounding Hansen’s resignation, the department’s spokeswoman, Dorie Turner Nolt, said the competition was scored by independent peer reviewers who don’t work for the department.

But she said the department did put conditions on the grant.

“The department reviewed Ohio’s administrative structure and past performance with other federal grants, which is what led to the state having special conditions placed on its new grant,” Nolt said in an email. “Those conditions include requiring the state to submit quarterly reports on its grant activities and budget.

“We will continue to monitor Ohio — and all grantees — to ensure they are serving children well."

Yost, a Republican, said his office requested a copy of the state’s application for the federal grant, prepared under Hansen’s leadership, so he could determine what the state intends to spend the money on, but the department hasn’t provided it.

The Dispatch asked both the state and federal departments for the final application earlier this week but had received nothing by Friday evening. Ohio Department of Education spokeswoman Kim Norris said Friday afternoon that the request was still being processed by the department’s legal counsel.

“We are certainly proud to have this opportunity to have this grant in Ohio and intend to be completely transparent and accountable with Auditor ‘shocked’ by $71 million grant for charter schools | The Columbus Dispatch:

Big Education Ape: Ohio Congressman questions Arne Duncan’s $32 million charter grant - The Washington Post http://bit.ly/1Obugmz

Court Gets Back to Business | National Law Journal

Court Gets Back to Business | National Law Journal:

Court Gets Back to Business

Union fees, affirmative action on new docket.

With the future of affirmative action, union's agency shop fees, and the counting of one person, one vote in redistricting in the balance, the Roberts Court's conservative majority may return to dominate major rulings in the new term. But will it be conservative with a small or a big "c"?

In the last U.S. Supreme Court term, justices on the left led the major rulings from same-sex marriage to specialty license plates.

"The story of the last term is the left side of the court did a lot of winning," said Irvin Gornstein, executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. "Justice [Anthony] Kennedy was the justice who usually joined the left side, but the chief justice and even Justice [Clarence] Thomas added to or provided the margin of victory."

But now, Gornstein predicted, "I would expect a return to the norm in which the right side of the court wins a majority but by no means all of the big cases with Justice Kennedy again the key vote in most of the key cases."

The main question in the new term is how conservative will any of those victories be, his Georgetown colleague, David Cole, said. Will the justices on the right take the broad or narrow path in deciding the most contentious issues, he asked.

"I would say generally when [the conservative majority] has had the option to take the moderate conservative route, that is what they have done, with some notable exceptions," Cole said.

The justices have agreed to decide 48 cases thus far. Thirteen of those cases were added to the docket three days after their Sept. 28 conference during which they culled more than a thousand petitions filed throughout the summer months.

The court used to issue the list more quickly, but last year it adopted an unwritten policy of taking more time to be sure that cases it is granting are teed up properly and don't have procedural flaws or other "vehicle problems."

Some of the more closely watched issues on the horizon, including abortion-clinic regulation and the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, were put off or not acted on. The court did not act on United States v. Newman, in which the federal government appealed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that limited insider-trading liability.

The threat for progressives, civil rights groups and consumer organizations comes in the cases involving the always divisive issues of affirmative action, union dues, voting and even class actions. And if, as predicted by many, the justices do take up pending petitions on abortion-clinic regulation, religious nonprofits' objections to contraceptive health insurance, and voting rights, the stakes in the term for those groups would likely skyrocket.

At least six petitions have been filed by nonprofit religious organizations challenging the government's method of accommodating their objections to providing contraceptive health insurance. The government had won those cases in six federal appellate courts until Sept. 17 when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit created a split.

The government has urged the justices to grant review to resolve the split and it suggests taking the D.C. Circuit case, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington v. Burwell, because it involves all types of insurance plans.

The two cases involving abortion-clinic restrictions are a Mississippi case — Currier v. Jackson Woman's Health Organization, which has been distributed for the justices' conference seven times — and a case from Texas, Whole Woman's Health v. Cole, which was just filed Sept. 2 with a response due Oct. 5. Two panels of the Fifth Circuit are in conflict and the justices are likely waiting for the Texas response to be filed before deciding whether to grant review in either or both cases.

David Strauss of the University of Chicago Law School noted that many of the biggest issues on the docket have already been before the justices, such as affirmative action.

"But for some reason, they haven't resolved the issue," he said. Strauss added: "I think they will get an abortion case this term. There are so many cases out there that, however unappetizing it is to them to get back into abortion, I think they will."

The justices will face mostly unexceptional arguments for the next two weeks. The second week of the October argument cycle will bring a parade of solicitors general to the lectern. In three cases being argued after the Columbus Day holiday, no fewer than four former or current U.S. solicitors general will argue before the court.

What follows is a look at some of the key cases already granted review.

The justices will decide in Evenwel v. Abbott the politically potent question of whether the one-person, one-vote principle for drawing state legislative districts allows states to apportion based on total population or requires states to use voter population. In past cases, the justices have suggested both.

"This has fairly major implications for how elections are run in this country," Jones Day's Hashim Mooppan said.

Nearly every state, including Texas, uses total population and has been doing so for half a century.

The primary force behind the challenge is the same man behind the term's affirmative action case — Edward Blum of the Project for Fair Representation.

For the second time in two years in Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin, the justices will examine whether the university's consideration of race as a factor in its admissions policy passes the Constitution's most searching review — strict scrutiny.

After the high court in a 7-1 decision sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit to apply stricter strict scrutiny, that appellate court re-endorsed the university's policy. Bert Rein (left) of Washington's Wiley Rein returns to the lectern to argue for Fisher.

Two straightforward questions face the justices in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association: Should Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) be overruled, ending public-sector "agency shop" arrangements? And, does the First Amendment require that public nonunion members affirmatively opt in to paying fees related to collective bargaining on their behalf, and not opt out as is the current practice.

"I would not feel very good coming into this if I were [the union] given what I've seen from the Roberts Court on this issue in the past few years," said Erin Murphy of Bancroft. "This isn't a few justices offhandedly suggesting they're open to reconsidering Abood. This comes on the heels of two back-to-back, solid five-justice majority opinions that fundamentally undermine every aspect of the reasoning in the Abood decision."

An estimated 2,000 prisoners in Montgomery v. Louisiana are hoping the justices will decide that their decision invalidating mandatory life in prison without parole for juvenile murderers applies retroactively.

The Georgia death penalty case Foster v. Chatman involves a particularly egregious use of race-based peremptory juror challenges by the prosecution. Although the case has attracted considerable attention, it may not have much impact beyond its particular facts. However, peremptory challenges have been controversial for some justices, such as Stephen Breyer, who has suggested the only way to end their discriminatory use is to abolish them.

The high court also continues to wrestle with administration of the death penalty and will examine

Read more: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202738857053/Court-Gets-Back-to-Business#ixzz3nVyP0tR1

What Will Happen to No Child Left Behind Now That Arne Duncan Is Resigning? - The Atlantic

What Will Happen to No Child Left Behind Now That Arne Duncan Is Resigning? - The Atlantic:

Now That Arne Duncan Is Out, Is No Child Left Behind to Stay?

The education law’s death is just around the corner.

In a weird way, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s surprising resignation is good news for the people who want the beleaguered No Child Left Behind overhauled as soon as possible.

Duncan, one of the final two members left from President Obama’s original cabinet, announced on Friday that he will be stepping down in December. Known for his creation of his controversial Race to the Top grant program and push for teacher accountability, Duncan is widely seen as one of America’s most powerful education secretaries in recent history.

His imminent departure, combined with those of House Speaker John Boehner and Representative John Kline, may be nerve-racking for No Child Left Behind’s critics because Congress is—or at least was—so close to successfully reauthorizing the five-decade-old omnibus education law from which it arose. That law, known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, was supposed to be reauthorized in 2007, but political infighting and other hiccups prevented that from happening year after year.

Now that the House and Senate have each passed bills to reauthorize it, Congress is closer than ever to actually doing away with the Bush-era policy—particularly because the Senate’s version is, thanks largely to its co-writers Lamar Alexander and Elizabeth Warren, a bipartisan proposal. But the pressure is on: As they stand, the House and Senate bills are substantially different, and the two chambers need to reconcile those differences for the legislation to make it to the president’s desk by the end of the year.

Boehner, Duncan, and Kline are key players in this process—Boehner is the last sitting member of Congress to have helped write No Child Left Behind, while Kline chairs the House education committee; Duncan because he is the chief executive of the department charged with carrying out the policy.



Now that all three are on their way out, it may seem like the rewrite is doomed. But it could be just the opposite, said Tamara Hiler, the education-policy advisor at the think tank Third Way. In fact, Duncan’s announcement on Friday, she said, could “actually be a sign that this is going to get done faster … that [it] could actually speed up the timeline.”



“Between him and John Boehner and John Kline all [leaving], this sort of sends a message to everyone that it’s now or never,” Hiler said. “There’s a culmination happening.” The four members of Congress chairing the education committees, she continued, “have a reason to want to get this [rewrite] done now, to take this issue off of the table” and focus on preparing for all the other impending uncertainties—who will replace Boehner as speaker of the House and Obama as president, to name a few.



Duncan’s announcement could also be an indication that the future of the rewrite is all but sealed, according to Hiler. The prospective law is likely to rein in the education secretary’s responsibilities, giving states more of a say in how schools are to be held accountable for student performance and progress. The amount of What Will Happen to No Child Left Behind Now That Arne Duncan Is Resigning? - The Atlantic:

Who is John King, and Will He Be Even More Controversial Than Arne? | EdSurge News

Who is John King, and Will He Be Even More Controversial Than Arne? | EdSurge News:
Who is John King, and Will He Be Even More Controversial Than Arne?

In his official press conference on Friday, October 2, President Barack Obama announced that John B. King, Jr. would take over the role of Secretary of Education from Arne Duncan. Obama sang King’s praises, saying “John has been an educator all his life--a teacher, a principal… he’s the right man to lead the department.”
Arne Duncan and John King are similar in that they both support a number of reform strategies, including charter schools, Common Core, and stringent teacher evaluation. As such, King may face some of the same challenges and criticisms as Duncan going forward. But Mr. King is no stranger to controversy, and while he may occupy his position for only a year, depending on the upcoming 2016 presidential election, he’s already getting his share of support and criticism in the press and in social media.
King’s Background
King was born in Brooklyn to an African-American educator and a Puerto Rican New York City public school teacher. His father was the first African-American principal of a public school in Brooklyn.
When speaking about his upbringing at Obama’s press conference, King shared personal heartbreak from his youth: “I lost my mom when I was 8, my dad when I was 12.” According to King, “NYC public school teachers are the reason that I stayed alive.” King went to acquire an undergraduate degree from Harvard, a law degree from Yale, and a doctorate in education from Columbia.
A proponent of charter schools, King started Boston’s Roxbury Prep charter school in 1999 and acted as Managing Director of Uncommon Schools beginning in 2005. Boston Magazine cited Roxbury’s high state standardized test scores in 2010: “Poor black and Latino kids from Roxbury are whipping the rest of Massachusetts on the MCAS.”

[He has] dogged support for the Common Core, for high-stakes testing, and for a badly flawed teacher evaluation system. DIANE RAVITCH

King entered New York state’s education department in 2009, and by 2011 had become its commissioner, where he oversaw the adoption of Common Core standards--which the New York Times referred to as “the most significant change during his tenure.” King joined the US Department of Education as a senior advisor in January 2015, which Obama cited positively in speech at the press conference: “He’s got a great team already at the Department of Education. Hisfamily is equally cool and good-looking.”

Not All Gold Stars in New York

Back in New York, having a good-looking family is not what King is predominantly remembered for. Rather, individuals might recall more of his stance on Common Core and his overseeing of the introduction of new teacher evaluations, which some New Yorkers and commentators found extreme.

While serving as Commissioner of Education of the State of New York, King introduced evaluation partially based on students’ progress on state standardized tests. Couple that with more difficult exams for prospective teaching candidates, and teacher certifications dropped by 20 percent in 2014. Vocal academic Diane Ravitch wrote on the morning of October 2, 2015 that King was extremely controversial “because of his dogged support for the Common Core, for high-stakes testing, and for a badly flawed teacher evaluation system.”

Also concerned about Obama’s appointment of King are several teachers’ unions and the NYS Allies for Public Education, a parent organization. Last year, the New York State United Teachers approved a vote of no confidence and called for King's removal. King was criticized by the union for “the implementation of Common Core learning standards and accused of failing to listen to teachers on ‘professional issues,’” according to AuburnPub.com.

"Here’s one big question mark: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (essentially No Child Left Behind) reauthorization. Duncan didn’t show really any enthusiasm for that, and I don’t think we know what King will do on that either."MICHAEL HORN, CO-FOUNDER OF THE CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE

Critics of the “reformer movement” are also questioning King’s ability to lead a nation of public school educators and learners given his apparent charter school proclivities. He supports “the type of draconian discipline policies for which many charters have become notorious” writes one New York public school teacher.

Looking Forward

While King has received a flurry of both support and criticism on social media in the last few hours alone, commentators are also contributing thoughts on what topics will prove to be most challenging for King going forward.
“Here’s one big question mark: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (essentially No Child Left Behind) reauthorization. Duncan didn’t show really any enthusiasm for that, and I don’t think we know what King will do on that either,” Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, told EdSurge in an interview.
Tom Murray of the Alliance for Excellent Education agrees: “It’s quite possible that the US Department of Education lose some of its power moving forward on that.”
Whether constituents are comfortable with Obama’s appointment or not, perhaps the biggest challenge facing King can be summed up in one word: time. King will likely only be in power for a year. Do you think that’s enough time for him to make lasting change? Leave comments below. Who is John King, and Will He Be Even More Controversial Than Arne? | EdSurge News:

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The Arne Duncan era is over — but his noxious policies mean childhood in America is still under threat - Salon.com

The Arne Duncan era is over — but his noxious policies mean childhood in America is still under threat - Salon.com:

The Arne Duncan era is over — but his noxious policies mean childhood in America is still under threat

"Reforming schools should not be a proxy for reforming society," educator and journalist Megan Erickson tells Salon

In keeping with a long Washington tradition of announcing less-than-good news at the end of the week, when many journalists are operating at three-quarter-speed (due to hangovers or laziness), the Obama administration announced on Friday that Arne Duncan, President Obama’s old hoops buddy, who the Washington Post once called “the most powerful education secretary in U.S. history,” was stepping down from the Department of Education. He was one of the precious few original members of the administration still standing. It had been a long seven years.

Duncan is leaving the DOE in a politically awkward position; it is currently a target of abuse from both the Tea Party right and the populist left. But as Politico’s Michael Grunwald recently detailed — in a profile of Duncan that now reads like a first draft of his legacy — that’s been true for the Duncan-era department essentially since Day One. Consummate progressive technocrat that he is, Duncan has always been drawn to top-down solutions, regardless of whether the politics made sense. And for nearly an entire presidency, it seemed to work.

Lately, though, it seems that the education reform movement that Duncan has so conspicuously embraced has lost some momentum. While many of the changes spurred by “Race to the Top” won’t go away any time soon, there’s at least some evidence to suggest that, as a political force, the education reform movement, which has never had major grassroots behind it, may have peaked. And if the next president is teachers’ union favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton, it’s even possible that some of the measures undertaken by Duncan and supported by reformers may be reversed.

If that’s the case, there will be plenty of folks who won’t be crying. And one of them will be Megan Erickson, the educator, journalist and author whose new book “Class War: The Privatization of Childhood” was released by Verso Books last month. Using her experience as a teacher for a foundation, Erickson subjects not only the education reform movement but much of modern childhood itself to a leftist analysis. Her conclusions suggest that while figures like Duncan are part of the problem, if the goal is to shield childhood from neoliberalism as much as possible, then defeating reformers isn’t enough.

Recently, Salon spoke with Erickson over the phone about her her book, Arne Duncan, the education reform movement and how neoliberalism is changing our very understanding of childhood’s purpose. Our conversation, which can be found below, has been edited for clarity and length. (Disclosure: I am a fan of Jacobin, where Erickson serves as an editor, and have previously written two posts for the magazine’s blog.)

So where did this book come from?

I got my master’s degree teaching at Columbia University at Teacher’s College. I student-taught 9th and 10th grade at Stuyvesant High School. Then I taught at the Young Woman’s Leadership School Network; and I actually had a great experience there.

What I saw in the schools really dismayed me; just the general atmosphere of pressure and standardized testing. At the same time, I was living in Greenpoint, so I would see kids running from the YMCA all the time. They were playing, they were learning music and getting outdoor experience in the park — they were having fun. It was the way teaching should be, as opposed to the kind of punitive, “metal-detector” The Arne Duncan era is over — but his noxious policies mean childhood in America is still under threat - Salon.com: