This week President-elect Obama, moved to nominate Chicago Public School’s CEO, Arne Duncan as the Federal Government’s Secretary of Education. While he has been heralded as a bi-lateral type of reformer in Chicago Public Schools, that school system still lags far behind the nation, and is only in the middle of the pack for urban education environments.
Some concerns of those in the field of education, may stem from the fact that Mr. Duncan has neither a degree in education, nor has he ever been a teacher in any sort of capacity. His base degree is a B.A. in sociology from Harvard, and as many educators would readily admit, a sociology degree does not lend itself to an accurate view of the issues facing the world of education. Mr. Duncan’s noteriety was recieved as the Director of the Ariel Education Initiative, a non-profit on the south-side of Chicago. Unfortunately, this post was most likely gained due to his life-long relationship with the foundation’s founder John Roger’s Jr. From their he gained the post of the Deputy Chief of Staff for the CPS in 1998, and then rose to succeed Paul Vallas.
