Barak Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan of Chicago, seems to be well thought of by a variety of personages and publications across the political spectrum. He’s been praised at the New Republic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and by a number of folks at the National Review. We’re told in these pages that he’s respected by the unions, that he’s an advocate for charter schools, and that he gets results. (Would it seem terribly cynical to not quite trust all this fluff?)
Perhaps the baldest statement of all this good feeling is from an editorial in the Washington Post:
In announcing his nomination of Mr. Duncan, Mr. Obama rejected the notion that there must be an either-or approach to making schools better. Both sides, he said, have good ideas and intentions, and he held out Mr. Duncan as someone not beholden to one ideology but capable of creating a new vision for the country’s education system.
This is good stuff, of course, especially the vision thing, all very reasonable.
Yet we have to wonder how long this good feeling, and this appeasement of all sides, can last.
The Times tells us (“Obama Pledge Stirs Hope in Early Education“) that the new administration will advocate for $10 billion for early childhood education:
After years of what they call backhanded treatment by the Bush administration, whose focus has been on the testing of older children, many advocates are atremble with anticipation over Mr. Obama’s espousal of early childhood education.
In the presidential debates, he twice described it as among his highest priorities, and his choice for secretary of education, Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools superintendent, is a strong advocate for it.
And the $10 billion Mr. Obama has pledged for early childhood education would amount to the largest new federal initiative for young children since Head Start began in 1965. Now, Head Start is a $7 billion federal program serving about 900,000 preschoolers.
“People are absolutely ecstatic,” said Cornelia Grumman, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group. “Some people seem to think the Great Society is upon us again.”
Any sober observer has to wonder how long the honeymoon can last!
*This is a sly and slighting reference to the traditional sea shantey “Drunken Sailor“, and as such is totally unworthy of the dignity of this venue. We mean to cast no aspersions on Mr. Duncan’s sobriety. Further, Chicago is a long way from the ocean — though conditions do get rough on the lake freighters.
Nevertheless, we do love a song, and will go some ways to drag an old one into our posts! There’s lots of verses — follow the link!
We especially like these:
Put him in the grog barrel til he’s pickled
Soak him in oil til he’s grown flippers
Put him in the head with his skivies on backwards
Put him in the hull with an angry weasel
It’s all in a day’s work in our nation’s capital!
I hope it’s understood that in truth we wish Mr. Duncan no ill!