Arne Duncan Finds a Job

41 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

1. Fred Smith says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:07 pm

   Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.

   LikeLike

   Reply
2. Zulma, NYC retired math teacher says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:21 pm

   I can’t wait to hear which reformy group Arne will be working for. Money bet it’s with a charter school organization.

   LikeLike

   Reply
3. Joe says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:26 pm

   Eli Broad’s shoeshine boy?

   LikeLiked by 1 person

   Reply
   • ciedie aech says:

     March 21, 2016 at 1:41 pm

     I think Antwon Wilson already has that job…

     LikeLike

     Reply
4. GST says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:28 pm

   Success Academy math teacher?

   LikeLike

   Reply
5. bertisdowns says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:29 pm

   Something at CAP– Clinton American Progress!?!?

   LikeLike

   Reply
6. bertisdowns says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:32 pm

   found it: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/arne-duncans-new-job-creating-jobs/

   Sun Times: “When Arne Duncan got back to Chicago after stepping down as head of the U.S. Department of Education, he couldn’t believe how bad the murder rate had become in his hometown during his seven-year absence.

   So he’s taking a private-sector job with the venture fund founded by billionaire Steve Jobs’ widow. In a new Chicago-based office, he hopes to create “real jobs” in disinvested neighborhoods and also connect young men who are out of school and out of work with those jobs, Duncan announced Thursday.”

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Dienne says:

     March 20, 2016 at 12:49 pm

     Thanks for the link. We kept Trump out of town – wondering if we could keep Arne out too.

     LikeLike

     Reply
   • Raj says:

     March 20, 2016 at 1:17 pm

     Dienne,

     The Sun Times story goes on as follows:

     “The goal for me is, if you could create a real training that leads to real jobs, if you give kids a reason to have hope, in the long term that’s the best way” to stave off violence, Duncan said. Especially in neighborhoods where many young people haven’t finished high school, have criminal records and can only make a living working for gangs, he continued.

     Why do you want keep Arne away from Chicago? Doesn’t he deserve a chance?

     LikeLike

     Reply
   • homelesseducator says:

     March 20, 2016 at 1:39 pm

     Arne is going to be filling to fill a void that HE created when, under his leadership of CPS, schools were encouraged to drop vocational programs.

     LikeLiked by 1 person

     Reply
   • Robert Rendo, NBCT says:

     March 20, 2016 at 1:57 pm

     Raj,

     I think you and Arne need to go to Chicacgo because YOU deserve a real chance.

     Why not meet up with some vicious street gangs there and see how they would respond to you both?

     You guys could go out to lunch . . . .

     LikeLike

     Reply
   • Dienne says:

     March 20, 2016 at 1:58 pm

     “Doesn’t he deserve a chance?”

     Oh for pity’s sake, Raj. Have you lived with your head in the sand? He’s had chance upon chance upon chance. All he’s done is leave destruction in his wake. The closest he’s have had to teaching experience was a job at an afterschool program arranged for him by one of his billionaire friends. The school where he had that experience was the first once he targeted for closing when he became “CEO” of Chicago Public Schools. He was a walking disaster for the entire 7 years he served as Secretary of Education. What makes you think this gig will be any different? Unlike the stock market, with people, past behavior is a very strong predictor of future behavior.

     LikeLike

     Reply
   • Chris in Florida says:

     March 20, 2016 at 5:39 pm

     Raj, of course he deserves a chance.

     Why don’t we make him head of your department or, even better, put him in charge of everything having to do with your field of work. What is your field again? Doesn’t really matter though, does it?

     His expertise comes from proximity. Playing b-ball with Obama and watching his mother tutor after school programs made him an expert of teaching and public education.

     He can remake your profession in the same way. Or maybe he could become chief of surgery at a Chicago area hospital? Or head of a nuclear physics department? Or secretary of agriculture.

     Economics would be a piece of cake after the billions he wasted on RTTT. Why not chief economist?

     The sky is the limit. Especially with such an ardent supporter as you.

     LikeLike

     Reply
   • GatorBonBC says:

     March 20, 2016 at 8:03 pm

     Cradle to grave, fulfilling that dream. three legged stool, education, health care, and labor. He’s choosing door numer three #dearhillary

     LikeLiked by 1 person

     Reply
   • Mark Collins says:

     March 21, 2016 at 10:16 am

     CFA – Cops for America. He’ll apply TFA methods to policing. Whoa Nelly!

     LikeLike

     Reply
     • ciedie aech says:

       March 21, 2016 at 1:50 pm

       I actually don’t think you’re far off the mark, here. One major reason that “reform” came into schools is that long-term, pension-dependent employees drain the public funding. Why have expensive, long-term employees when two-year recruits can come and go at a minimal price (except, of course, for the horrible price of slowly killing off a safe and educated society….)

       LikeLike

7. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:37 pm

   SAVE those teens from Duncan.

   LikeLike

   Reply
8. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:37 pm

   Another charitable organization, which profits, of course.

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • Linda says:

     March 20, 2016 at 1:58 pm

     The moneyed and unproductive folks from Silicon Valley find a different route for stealing dollars from kids in public schools. Same players.

     LikeLike

     Reply
9. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   March 20, 2016 at 12:38 pm

   I should say: “SO-CALLED” charitable organization. Just because they say it’s a charitable organization doesn’t make it true.

   LikeLike

   Reply
10. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

    March 20, 2016 at 12:40 pm

    And HE is one of the sources of the problems. OY!

    LikeLike

    Reply
11. Jamie says:

    March 20, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    Venture capital to the rescue

    LikeLike

    Reply
12. GST says:

    March 20, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    His first order of business will probably be to help Rahm Emanuel find his next “real” job (assuming the state doesn’t have an open position in the laundry room at an Illinois correctional facility).

    LikeLike

    Reply
13. Chiara says:

    March 20, 2016 at 1:53 pm

    I think he’s much better suited to the private sector, frankly. He took a private sector approach and attitude to the public sector and I am tired of that.

    Jamming everything into a private sector box is just dumb. Citizens are more than consumers of services and public schools are more than service providers and every expression of dissent or disagreement isn’t “self interested politics” to be dismissed out of hand and ignored.

    Maybe he’ll be more effective there, surrounded by people who agree with him with no pesky “public” to deal with, with all their loud and messy “politics” and factions and dissent 🙂

    Didn’t he used to call himself CEO of schools? Now he can be a real one, accountable only to a bd of directors and the private sector donors he has to raise money from.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • Linda says:

      March 20, 2016 at 2:09 pm

      Duncan’s new salary source, from untaxed “charity” dollars and indirectly, from taxpayer fleecing, through federal and state money, is marginally better than his direct public salary, for undermining the common good.
      I hope Duncan knows he’s a shill and isn’t, like his colleague, Axelrod, who, almost, brought himself to tears, reflecting on how much good he thought he’d done for the country, while making Obama popular.

      LikeLike

      Reply
14. Kim Kaufman says:

    March 20, 2016 at 2:39 pm

    I’ll bet his solution will be: more charter schools.

    LikeLike

    Reply
15. Donna says:

    March 20, 2016 at 3:29 pm

    I assumed he was going to open an orphanage and fill it with hard to teach children from ghettos. That was what he was thinking when he said some children should be taken in by a government school and taught 24/7, right? How nice for him. The man has no heart and no conscience, but still lands on hi$ feet while managing to funnel tax dollars to himself. Amazing.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

    Reply
16. artseagal says:

    March 20, 2016 at 4:00 pm

    Basketball Charter Academy with data-driven court-side learning with a bubble in test at every turn to gauge player performance?

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • SomeDAM Poet says:

      March 21, 2016 at 8:17 am

      “Anyone can open a Charter” (and does)

      Start a charter, anyone can
      Even a former tennis man.
      Arne Duncan’s welcome too
      Cuz charter is a cinch to do

      LikeLiked by 1 person

      Reply
      • ciedie aech says:

        March 21, 2016 at 1:50 pm

        Ouch.

        LikeLiked by 1 person

17. John says:

    March 20, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    Something to do with wite-out.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • bethree5 says:

      March 21, 2016 at 11:20 pm

      Love it, John.

      LikeLike

      Reply
18. Chiara says:

    March 20, 2016 at 5:01 pm

    We’re coming up on “testing season” again in Ohio so I can expect a flurry of canned editorials from national ed reform groups supporting testing.

    “In the Buckeye State” blah, blah blah. They just replace the name of the state, depending on where they’re plugging the policy.

    We hear from them once a year, and only when it’s time to scold public school students on testing. Then they go back to promoting charters and vouchers and bashing public schools for the other 11 months of the year.

    Public schools exist for reasons other than data collection and tracking. The kids do more than sit for the Common Core test once a year. Maybe lawmakers should drop by occasionally- they might learn something.

    LikeLike

    Reply
19. jdhollowell says:

    March 20, 2016 at 8:16 pm

    Arne Duncan is a fine man and has done extraordinary work everywhere he has been.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • LeftCoastTeacher says:

      March 20, 2016 at 9:05 pm

      His work playing on the Melborne, Australia Spectres pro basketball team, for example. And of course getting that Celebrity Basketball Game MVP. That was heartwarming. Congratulations to a very special man on getting a job.

      LikeLike

      Reply
    • Michael Fiorillo says:

      March 21, 2016 at 10:24 am

      “Arne Duncan is a good man and has done extraordinary work everywhere he has been.”

      That’s a good one. Sometimes the best form is satire is the simplest and most direct.

      LikeLike

      Reply
    • Puget Sound Parent says:

      March 21, 2016 at 3:37 pm

      “Arne Duncan is a fine man and has done extraordinary work everywhere he has been.”

      Well, I completely agree…if you’re defining “extraordinary” as corrupt, imperial, haughty, smug, arrogant, out-of-touch and completely beholden to billionaire’s whims and the agenda of abundantly funded corporate and pro-privatization interests.

      Another “Son Of Chicago” did “extraordinary” work too, in the 1920’s. His name was Al Capone.

      LikeLike

      Reply
20. vercingetorix says:

    March 20, 2016 at 9:12 pm

    There is but one job for Mr. Duncan: teaching, but first year’s teacher pay…and let him figure out how to get to year four and PTS. I think he needs to sit in a Starbucks on a sunday night correcting 120 essays on “Great Expectations” or ” The Count of Monte Cristo”. Actually, he should start off as substitute teacher.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

    Reply
21. eleanor says:

    March 21, 2016 at 7:27 am

    So many excellent comments ….. wish there were a “like” button!

    LikeLike

    Reply
22. Puget Sound Parent says:

    March 21, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    (From the article, where Duncan waxes eloquently about how half of the adult black males in Chicago are disconnected from either work or school and how the “instability” Dunca cites in their neighborhoods is a major factor in causing this. Kudos to the reporter for writing this section, and for what was, overall, a pretty good piece.)

    “As for the instability of schools in those same neighborhoods, which have been plagued by massive school closings in recent years — a practice Duncan engaged in at CPS on a smaller scale — Duncan would blame only insufficient state funding and CPS’ revolving door of leaders.”

    What?!?! As if he, Arne Duncan—and his steadfast allies, such as the odious Mayor Rahm Emanuel—somehow had nothing to do with any of this, especially “CPS’ revolving door of leaders!”

    The absolute gall of this man, Arne Duncan, is simply astonishing.

    But I haven’t seen anything disclosing his salary (plus bonuses and “incentives?”)

    Could that be because he doesn’t WANT us to know—given the appearance here of a classic “revolving door” public to private move, which typically results in an absolutely obscene pay raise, all due to the former “low paid” public servant now Ca$hing In on those years he made such a “sacrifice” all because he was “so dedicated to serving the public.” Oh, please, Arne.

    Is there any way for us to find out HOW MUCH Duncan is raking in here?

    LikeLike

    Reply
    • FLERP! says:

      March 21, 2016 at 3:34 pm

      Looks like it’s an LLC, so no, it doesn’t have to make that disclosure.

      LikeLike

      Reply