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  • Arne Duncan

    An Avalanche of Reform?

    Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the 19 finalists for the final phase of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) competition on Tuesday. The finalists are Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, … More

    Morning Bell: The Quiet Education Overhaul

    Yesterday, President Obama delivered a major speech on education in an effort to garner support for his Race to the Top grant program and his push for national education standards and tests. The President’s remarks came on the heels of a speech delivered by Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday … More

    The Obama Education Revolution

    During his otherwise ordinary remarks yesterday at the National Press Club, education secretary Arne Duncan said something quite extraordinary. It came as he was announcing the 19 finalists for the second round of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant competition: We arrived in Washington at a time when … More

    Tucker Carlson on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and Union Control

    Tucker Carlson takes it to the teachers unions and the administration for phasing-out the highly successful and popular D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. “D.C. Public Schools aren’t bad, they’re the worst.” Carlson notes that the D.C. voucher program is “a direct challenge to the teachers’ unions. Here are kids who aren’t … More

    Billions More Taxpayer Stimulus Bucks for Public Education?

    Apparently $80 billion of stimulus funds for public education wasn’t enough. The Obama administration now says that the federal government should fork out $23 billion more in taxpayer money to save teaching jobs. If not, according to education Secretary Arne Duncan, we will see catastrophic teacher layoffs. Before calling for … More

    Not an April Fool’s Joke: “School-Homing” Education Ideas

    “According to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education, an increasing number of American parents are choosing to have their children raised at school rather than at home,” The Onion “reports” today. “School-homing,” as the satirical source dubs the fictional trend, would be a witty April Fool’s … More

    Race to the Bargaining Table: Does Federal Grant Program Reward Unions?

    Monday’s announcement that Delaware and Tennessee would win the first round of Race to the Top funds put a reality check on the grand expectations for the grant competition’s potential for true reform. While many of the first round’s 16 finalists presented applications strongly committed to the specific grant requirements … More

    School Choice, Chicago Style: Arne Duncan’s List of the Rich and Powerful

    U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, while serving as Chicago Public Schools chief, maintained a list of special requests from politically connected individuals for children to attend the city’s best schools. The information, reported today by the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, is the focus of a federal probe and investigation by … More

    School Choice is First Casualty of Obama Education Overhaul

    Certainly one of the most unfortunate provisions in the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization “blueprint” is the elimination of school choice and supplemental education services for students trapped in failing schools. The school choice provisions contained within NCLB, while limited, provide an opportunity for children to escape … More

    Is Increasing Education Spending Really Good News?

    We received an email today from Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “By now, I expect you’ve heard the good news,” the Secretary wrote. “…at a time when most government spending is frozen, the President proposed a significant increase in discretionary spending for education in his fiscal year 2011 budget.” We were … More