Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Duncan in favor of local control, unless he's the one weighing in

EdWeek points out that our federal Secretary of Education, who has repeatedly commented on his dislike of federal interference when running the Chicago schools, has over the course of his tenure weighed in several times on local issues:

In February, Duncan got involved in the heated battle over collective bargaining in Wisconsin. And he also told the Atlanta School Board, whose high schools were put on probation by a major accrediting agency, to get its act together.
In January, he urged new Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to keep interim schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson in that job for good. (And that was the outcome.)
Also that month, he criticized the Wake County, N.C., School Board in a letter to the Washington Post for ending its busing-for-diversity policy.
Last summer, Duncan urged the Detroit City Council to put a question on the November ballot that would turn control of the city's schools over to the mayor. (The council decided against it.)
And that's not counting this week!

1 comment:

Jim Gonyea said...

For many people democracy is a fine principal, so long as the majority of voters agree with them. Unfortunately that's not how democracy works.