Posted on 08/20/2011 7:44:27 AM PDT by indianrightwinger
Friday, Aug. 19, 2011 Arne Duncan Can't Quite Explain Why He's Dissing Texas By Andrew J. Rotherham
Why is Arne Duncan messing with Texas? I asked the Secretary of Education about this a few hours after he injected himself into the presidential-election scrum. Policy wonks like me had woken up to baffling reports that Duncan told Bloomberg Television's Al Hunt that the Texas school system "has really struggled" under Rick Perry, the GOP governor who just announced he is running for President. "Far too few of their high school graduates are actually prepared to go on to college," Duncan said in the TV interview, which is scheduled to air this weekend, telling Hunt that he feels "very, very badly for the children there."
When I asked Duncan about this dire assessment in an interview I had scheduled today for my next School of Thought column, the former head of the Chicago school system was light on specifics:
"Texas has challenges. The record speaks for itself. Lots of other states have challenges too. But there is a lot of hard work that needs to be done in Texas and a lot of children who need a chance to get a great education." (See the education crisis no one is talking about.)
But what about the fact, I responded, that on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Texas' fourth- and eighth-graders substantially outperformed their peers in Chicago in reading and math?
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Given what we’ve seen during the past couple of weeks, Perry entering the race has really caught the dems off guard. You can tell the 0bama people are flatfooted and scared, because they are flailing with their attacks.
By Chicago Public Schools’ own reckoning, about a quarter of its elementary schools and more than 40 percent of its high schools are failing, according to internal documents obtained by the Tribune.
Pathetic.
A third rate political hack who utterly failed as head of Chicago Schools lying about Rick Perry’s Texas performance.
Tell us about the Chicago public schools achievements donk.
Wow, hard to believe this in Time. Interestingly most of the comments on this article at the website are pro-Perry.
Even granting him the benefit of all doubt - let’s see one specific issue or program that the Governor was responsible for that adversely impacted Texas education. In contrast to local school boards, school adminstrators, teachers, parents, etc...
I wonder if Time has concluded that their politics is responsible for the demise of their business.
Someone probably told them they have six months to turn it around.
Between you and I, I feel badly for Arne Duncan.
Arne Duncan has proven himself to be a political lackey in the service of a much bigger buffoon. He sold himself out, in a completely unprofessional manner. This is why politics sucks and this is why Obama lied when he said he would bring change...he brought nothing of the sort. His administration is nothing but hateful partisan attacks, completely volunteered at the blink of an eye!
It is all about Obama, screaming arrogance from a thin skinned, spoiled, over rewarded brat who thinks he is the focus of the world. He is not a leader and he has now shown that. He is a thousand miles away from his “soaring” rhetoric of 2008. He is not inspiring at all.
An old Chinese proverb - “Even Donkey dung shines when its new” - and the bloom is off that rose.
Have not seen a positive story on Perry since he’s entered the race and that’s from both sides of the political spectrum.
I can’t imagine what it will be like when Palin jumps in.
Looks like our Secretary of Education is now in full campaign mode. This is going to be a long election season. Next month, Duncan will be on TV telling us how badly he feels for Alaska students.
Not saying we have perfect schools, but we are handicapped in that so many of the students don’t speak English so it’s hard to prepare them for college. It costs money to find teachers who speak TexMex and most of us are sick of paying extra to teach the children of illegals. School districts where English is the primary language and parents are actively involved are still turning out students prepared for higher education.
Of course old Arne doesn’t tell you that Texas’ National Honor Society students performed top of the nation out of Denton County. You see, we don’t invite kids into that group unless they are the tops.
And I’m sure old Arne is cringing now that charges are being revealed of the many states cheating on their stats to get a piece of Race to The Top.
Democrats always think bribery and throwing money at something is a solution. But it’s usually what leads to corruption.
Texas’ kids parents mostly have jobs, so they can’t be around as much as parents in many blue states to help their children with their homework.
No problemo. These illegals will be moved up the educational ladder under Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and take away Texas university class seats from U.S. citizen students under Perry's Texas DREAM Act while their parents enjoy amnesty under Obama's "immigration reform policy. Problem Solved! /s/
If you’ve ever heard Arne speak, he barely can string a sentence together in the queens English. He evidently skipped a lot of classes.
The underperformance of the Chicago public schools is totally shocking when you consider that n0bama himself, in his only executive role ever, was the founding chairman of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (1995 to 2001). The CAC was initiated by Bill Ayers (some local guy that Hussein knew about that taught English in a nearby university).
You would have thought that with the tremendous brain power of these 2 leading the charge and with $50m of funding plus 2-to-1 matching funds that they would have sown seeds for unbounded success for Chicago’s public schools. An internal report deemed the results of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge to be a failure.
So then what happens? Our great country elevates n0bama to the highest elected executive position in the land. He in turn selects the leader of the failing Chicago public school system, Arne Duncan, to lead the charge for our education system on a national level. Along the way, in a totally bizarre twist, Duncan selects a leader of sexual perversion, Kevin Jennings (founder of GLSEN) to become the Safe Schools Czar for our children.
And this guy takes pot shots at Texas?
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