Posted on 07/10/2015 11:50:05 AM PDT by markomalley
As Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s family moves back to Chicago, his children will be attending a school that has avoided implementing his policies.
Duncan’s children had been attending Arlington Public Schools while he served in President Obama’s cabinet since 2009.
But now, they will attend his alma mater: the private, prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
The secretary’s spokeswoman, Dorie Nolt, tells the Washington Post:
After more than six years living just outside Washington, D.C., Secretary Duncan’s family moved back to Chicago recently. His wife, Karen, is ready to resume her full-time career in education and will work at her former employer, the University of Chicago Laboratory School, where their children will attend school. Secretary Duncan will continue to work and maintain a residence in D.C. but commute to spend weekends with his family, as many cabinet Secretaries have done. Secretary Duncan remains committed to his work in the Cabinet and will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President.
Duncan has been an ardent defender of the Common Core national standards initiative, a plan to set uniform learning standards across all states. Developed by groups in Washington, DC, the federal government heavily incentivized the adoption of the initiative through the 2009 stimulus.
Since then, Duncan has asserted more federal control over schools by way of the Common Core initiative.
Now, Duncan’s children will attend a school that does not use the controversial Common Core.
While Duncan has been a proponent of increased standardized testing, the school his children will now attend does not “bombard” children with test-prep, nor does it evaluate teachers using test scores.
But as an testing opt-out movement took root across the country earlier this year, Duncan threatened to drop the hammer on states that didn’t comply with federal demands.
“We think most states will do that,” Duncan said in April of states making “sure districts get enough students take the tests,” Chalkbeat reported. “If states don’t do that, then we have an obligation to step in.”
That “stepping in” would have involved financial penalties and other federal meddling.
“I’m extraordinarily thankful that my children are able to go to wonderful public schools with great principals and teachers who are really committed,” Duncan said in an April interview. “My wife and I have been really pleased with the quality of the education our children have received and we just try to do what we can to be good partners to their teachers.”
But his children won’t be subjected to Chicago Public Schools — a system vastly different from Arlington’s.
While Duncan can afford to send his kids to the Lab School with its $30,618 annual tuition, he is opposed to providing vouchers to those parents who are less fortunate and have children trapped in CPS who may want to attend the high-quality school along with his children.
The secretary was a supporter of the Democrat-controlled Congress’ move in 2009 to kill the wildly successful D.C. voucher program in the nation’s capital.
All the elites here send their spawn to the Lab School.
The people who run the public schools avoid them like plague.
We should do likewise.
Do as I say, not as I do.
The hypocrisy is mind-boggling in the Democratic Party.
.
Liberals say this is how conservatives view lower classes of people. We push for vouchers, the iberals keep the poor out and under their feet. They do the evil they falsely claim we do.
Didn’t the Obama girls go to Sidwell Friends?
Caroline Kennedy wrote a book praising public schools to the hilt, and when Imus asked her if SHE sent HER kids to Public School, she sputtered like an old jalopy, and Imus finally had to say...”I didn’t think so” and laughed! HYPOCRITES!!!!
Caroline - Concord Academy, Concord, MA.
Why is Arne Duncan walking around alive and free?
Once more kiddies: The rules are for the serfs, not the rulers.
Sorry to repeat myself-—but all public schools were literally changed into indoctrination seminaries-—to destroy Reason and Logic and Natural Law (Common Sense) in children. It was used to remove children from the Natural Family so that the State could control the ideas and emotions in children.
The curricula is to force godless, hedonism-—for a collapse of Virtue in children because without Virtue, Freedom is impossible.
Habituating Virtue in children is essential and most of that has to be done by interacting with human beings with a loving Mother and Father, and learning self-initiative—autonomy— which only happens in a healthy family and neighborhood environment—NEVER in an ARTIFICIAL INSTITUTION (like the orphanages. Modern “schools” (Prussian System which removed Classical Education (Western Civ and Bible) literally destroy that—learning how to obtain Truth/God. The Prussian schooling embeds dependency and self-hate, parent-hate, and “Group Think” only. Emotions will rule and intellectual pursuit is being warped and channeled into “feelings” and ideology ( irrational Marxism where boys are girls and Slavery is Freedom).
Lincoln and Ben Franklin and Jefferson NEVER stepped into a “school” prior to 8 years old and they never attended one for more than 4-6 years. Lincoln, only a few months and it was when ONLY Classical Education was given. NO social engineering for a pagan, Marxist worldview of irrationality (removal from Reality (Natural Family so irrational concepts like “snow is black” is believed by the ignorant masses and boys can be girls——so irrational and artificial that any absurdity can be believed by the masses, like killing babies is “Good”.)
Silly wabbit, these rules aren’t for me!
I didn’t become a member of the elite political class so that I could follow my own rules.
Rules are for chumps.
Yes, that’s in DC. Here in Chicago they all go to the Lab School.
Between my two boys, they attended about 10 years (combined) of private education prior to high school - religious schools to boot. Not their faith but good places and good folks. That was awhile back and probably cost less than $50,000. No big deal if you drive 15 year old cars and don’t eat dinner at restaurants. And the local public school system was good once they had a foundation.
I didn’t have to do much except maintain discipline, foster and support their interests, teach them to use tools and shoot firearms. Elder one shot expert at Marine boot camp. Young one is a machinist and a backyard gunsmith.
and as always, they care not one freaking whit
No gall to see here folks, just move along...
So Arnie et ux. made the smart but hypocritical decision to live just across the Potomac in Virginia, where the public schools (at least in the "nice" neighborhoods) are probably much better than the overwhelming majority of private schools across the USA.
yeah, and congress is a small business...
Home school ping.
SMART MAN...if anyone knows just HOW BAD public schools are, it is him.
But, needless to say, nearly everyone ON THIS SITE still puts their kids on that big yellow bus...since it’s ‘free’.
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