For five years, I have listened to
Arne Duncan lecture the American people about how terrible our public schools
are.
He goes on at length about our
ignorant students, our misguided parents, our ineffective teachers, our failing
public schools.
In his eyes, we seem to be a nation
of slackers, bums, ignoramuses, fools, and failures.
We know that he likes: charter
schools, Teach for America, closing public schools and handing them over to
corporate management, and “graduate schools” that have no scholars, no researchers,
just tutors of test-taking skills.
And of course, he loves the heavy
emphasis on test-taking in places like Shanghai and Singapore. Test scores are
his North Star. He wishes we could be like Shanghai, and that all our moms were
“Tiger Moms,” cracking the whip over the children and making them get ready for
the next test. All work, no play.
Every once in a while, he launches a
campaign calling for “R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” but no one believes him. They know it is
just empty PR.
So, I wonder, what are the
unforgettable phrases of Arne Duncan that will be his legacy, the words that
encapsulate his unique combination of certainty and cluelessness.
Entry one must be his immortal comment about Hurricane Katrina, which
caused the deaths of over 1,000 people and wiped out public education and the
teachers’ union in New Orleans: He said that Hurricane Katrina was “the best
thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans.”
Forget the fact
that the great majority of charter schools in New Orleans today are rated
either D or F by the state of Louisiana (which favors them). According to
Secretary Duncan, every major city needs a Hurricane Katrina or some other
natural disaster to demolish public education and eliminate teachers’ unions so
they can be replaced by privately managed charter schools and Teach for
America.
Of course, then Teach for America would have to train 1,000,000
teachers a year instead of only 10,000, and it would put an end to the teaching
profession, but Arne hasn’t thought that far in advance.
Entry two was captured by Gary
Rubinstein in this post on his blog:
At Teach for America’s 20th anniversary celebration, Arne Duncan was a featured
speaker. He told the story of a school that had only a 40% graduation rate. The
school was shut down and replaced by three charter schools. One graduated all
of its students, and all were accepted into college.
Duncan said: “Same
children, same community, same poverty, same violence. Actually went to school
in the same building with different adults, different expectations, different
sense of what’s possible. Guess what? That made all the difference in the
world.”
Gary pointed out that the students were not the same kids, and that the
107 who graduated were not the same as the 166 who started in the class. Yes,
the graduation rate was higher, but it was not the 100% that Arne implied. And
to make matters worse, the students at that particular “miracle school” had
lower test scores than the Chicago school district. But Arne was trying to
promote his theory that schools get better if everyone is fired and the slate
is wiped clean.
Then there was the time last year
when he sneered at parents in New York state who objected to the absurd Common
Core tests as “white suburban moms who —
all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and
their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”
He quickly tried
to walk that one back, but it stuck. He deeply believes that our kids are
dummies and their parents want to believe that they are smart when they are
not. I guess you need to have a Harvard B.A. to be so arrogant about the
brainpower of other people’s children.
My personal favorite occurred when he visited a charter school in Brooklyn. He told those assembled that the United States is facing
both an economic crisis and an educational crisis. And then came this immortal
line: “We should be able to look every second grader in the eye and say,
‘You’re on track, you’re going to be able to go to a good college, or you’re
not,’ ” he said. “Right now, in too many states, quite frankly, we lie to
children. We lie to them and we lie to their families.”
The claim that we are “lying to our
students” or “we are lying to our children” is like a mantra for Arne, so
that’s not new. What is special about this line is the idea that you should be
able to look every second grader in the eye and be able to tell them that they
are on track to go to a good college.
Since I have a grandson who is in second
grade, I know how absurd this is. I look into his eyes and I see a laughing,
happy child. That’s what I want to see. Sometimes I see a sad child, and I want
to know what’s wrong and can I help. I see a child who loves to read and loves
to play. The last thing in the world that would occur to me as a parent, a
grandparent, or an educator is to ask whether he was on track to go to a good
college. I want him to be on track to be happy, healthy, curious about the
world, eager to learn, and secure in the love that surrounds him.
Julian Vasquez Heilig collected
his Top Ten of Arne’s Inanities.
The reality is that it is easy to
find Arne’s clueless remarks. They occur whenever he goes off script.
What is your favorite Arne Duncan
line? I have known almost every Secretary of Education since the U.S. Department
of Education was created in 1980. I have never known one who had so little
respect for students, educators, parents, school boards, or public education as
our current Secretary.
Nor have I known one who had so little understanding
about what constitutes genuine learning. Not test scores, but a love of
learning, a love of tinkering, a love of knowledge. It is innovation,
creativity, imagination, curiosity, wit, and the pursuit of new knowledge that
is the genius of our nation. Those who care not to preserve those essential
aspects of education are not educators, but technicians, bureaucrats, and bean
counters.
My wish: Arne Duncan should take the
PARCC test for eighth graders and publish his scores.