Protestors from across the nation journeyed to Washington, where they received 45 minutes of Arne Duncan’s time.
They told Duncan and President Obama’s education advisor, Roberto Rodriguez, that the closings in minority communities were harming the students and the communities, but Duncan said he had no control over the school closings.
Those are local matters.
Philadelphia is poised to close dozens of schools. Chicago is poised to close as many as 200 schools.
Duncan forgot for the moment that Race to the Top encourages “turnarounds” in which school closings is one of the options for schools with low test scores.
If he agrees with the protestors, he could change his strategy and he could speak out against plans to close more schools.
He might come up with creative ways to help schools that are struggling.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That would require independent thought, something of which he’s evidently incapable while his head is placed strategically elsewhere. Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:18:51 +0000 To: mkaufman27@msn.com
According to the HuffPost article, “…the Office of Civil Rights has investigated 27 school closings, finding insufficient evidence of civil rights violations in every case.”
I believe the problem is that complaints are filed with the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/index.html and Duncan is the very person who brought the school closing/turnaround policies from Chicago to the nation, so of course they found “insufficient evidence.” The fox is in charge of the hen house! There must be a way to appeal to a higher authority than the office of Duncan himself.
Yes, sort of like asking the fox if there are any problems with security in the hen house.
Okay, I’m officially confused. Obama has an “education advisor”? I thought that’s what the Cabinet is supposed to be – the president’s advisors in different areas. How is this Rodriguez guy different from Duncan? Are their philosophies any different? Are their roles any different? Or are my tax dollars just being used for duplicative positions (and staffs)?
SSSHHHHHHH!, Dienne!
The Masterberators know what is good and right for us peons. Do not question, seek only to prostrate yourself before them.
I guess you need someone who knows something about education when the hoops buddy you brought along with you from Chicago to play Secretary of Education is not an educator.
According to this http://theforum.sph.harvard.edu/expert-participants/roberto-j-rodr%C3%ADguez “Rodriguez serves in the White House Domestic Policy Council as Special Assistant to the President for Education. Previously, Rodríguez was Chief Education Counsel to United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy.” He has a graduate degree from Harvard’s School of Education, but what kind of influence can he be if he got Ted Kennedy on board with the testing mania of NCLB?
He got off to a decent start at La Raza, but fell off the rails somewhere along the line. He worked on NCLB and the “America COMPETES Act”. Yikes.
Duncan and Rodriguez think alike.
Do you have any idea what Rodriguez’s role is? If he and Duncan are clones, why does Obama need both? What does Rodriguez do that Duncan doesn’t/can’t? Does Rodriguez have any actual authority?
Duncan and his cronies Tweet about everything else. They can’t (won’t) Tweet about school closings? How convenient.
“He might come up with creative ways to help schools that are struggling.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah! With friends like the Obama administration, who needs enemies.
Duncan and creative in the same sentence? He will wait for Bill’s call to tell him what to do….he is just the water boy for Gates…nothing more. It is a very simple job when you wait for the next set of directions to come your way. What a disgrace!
How dare he shirk his responsibility.
Sorry Diane, this is NOT about policy, and this is NOT about rational debate and making hard choices. This is about Mirror Mirror On The Wall:
Mirror Mirror On The Wall…
Who is the Most Connected of them all?
Who is the Most Credentialed of them all?
Who is the Most Titled of them all?
Who is the Most Paid of them all?
… except for those who are patsies for the users and abusers and don’t realize how $ocial cla$$ is what this game is all about.
IF Duncan and his ilk were smarter, they’d be a Goldman / Geithner bandits.
rmm
seattle