Sunday, July 04, 2010

One (Very Good) Reason To Support US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Via EIA, reporting on New Business Items at the 2010 National Education Association convention in New Orleans:

NBI 44 – “The NEA shall encourage President Obama to replace the Sect. of Educ. Arne Duncan with a person who is aligned with the interests of the NEA, its members, and especially the students it serves.”


In this case, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

6 comments:

Mike Thiac said...

A bit more to the point, the enemy of my enemy is my ally.

Kinda like the bumper sticker I sent you two years ago,

McCain: He Sucks Less

Michelle said...

Yes yes...all well and good. However, Arne is not necessarily a good sect. of ed. and his policies continue to concern me. However my own beliefs are far different from the NEA....so do we know in particular what he has done to annoy them so?

Darren said...

Charter schools, and the competition involved in the Race To The Top slushfund.

allen (in Michigan) said...

Support of charters, vouchers and tax credits. That's what's annoyed them so.

Duncan, taking a cue from Obama, is fairly obviously supportive of everything those who benefit from the educational status quo hate and fear.

The unions want to try to twist Obama's arm and the most obvious way they can succeed is to name the SecEd. If the unions can force Obama to replace Duncan with their boy they'll have proven they still have political clout and will warn off challenges for some time to come.

Trouble is, they're opponent is the black vote which very strongly favors educational reform of the type championed by Duncan/Obama.

So the question is does the black vote weigh more heavily then union money?

So far it's the black vote that's winning and any win by the unions can only be temporary because if the black vote deserts the Democratic party they're toast as a national force.

Darren said...

Let's not forget, though, that Obama went along with killing the DC voucher program.

Michelle - The Bolder Tutor said...

Honestly, this race to the top thing is a joke in my opinion. They are already talking about chipping away the money for other things. I wonder at the people who really think throwing more money at the problem is going to fix it. Colorado is passing state regulations in their hope to still make it to the top. In the mean time the unions are going nuts locally.