Duncan Drops the Ball

UPDATE below: Dick Durbin standing in the schoolhouse door, the heir to George Wallace bigotry.***The Washington Post editorializes in favor of vouchers for D.C. students, a rare bright spot that has achieved some academic success in a school district that rivals Chicago as among the worst in the country. Former Chicago School Supt. and new Obama administration Education Secretary Arne Duncan comes in for some criticism:

THE INK WAS barely dry on the latest study of D.C. school vouchers when Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that he is ready to pull the plug on the program, although he doesn't want current students moved. The study's findings are no slam-dunk for the program's success, but they are, by no means, proof of failure. Indeed, for the first time, researchers found statistically significant improvement in reading test scores for students offered vouchers and that, at the very least, demands further study. [snip]

So it's perplexing that Mr. Duncan, without any further discussion or analysis, would be so quick to kill a program that is supported by local officials and that has proven popular with parents. Unless, of course, politics enters the calculation in the form of Democratic allies in Congress who have been shameless in their efforts to kill vouchers. Most recently, they inserted language in the omnibus budget bill that cuts off funding after the next school year unless Congress and the District government reauthorize the program.

Presumably Sec. Duncan could find it in him to do more, should his boss back him. But presumably he was hired as a go along to get along kind of guy, nibbling for reform at the margins, much like his boss, our President Barack Obama. So Arne Duncan drops the ball, leaving behind another generation of lost children, especially boys, in the inner cities. 

More: WSJ, "Democrats and Poor Kids": 

Education Secretary Arne Duncan did a public service last week when he visited New York City and spoke up for charter schools and mayoral control of education. That was the reformer talking. The status quo Mr. Duncan was on display last month when he let Congress kill a District of Columbia voucher program even as he was sitting on evidence of its success.

In New York City with its 1.1 million students, mayoral control has resulted in better test scores and graduation rates, while expanding charter schools, which means more and better education choices for low-income families. But mayoral control expires in June unless state lawmakers renew it, and the United Federation of Teachers is working with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to weaken or kill it.

President Obama's stimulus is sending some $100 billion to the nation's school districts. What will he demand in return? The state budget passed by the New York legislature last week freezes funding for charters but increases it by more that $400 million for other public schools. Perhaps a visit to a charter school in Harlem would help Mr. Obama honor his reform pledge. "I'm looking at the data here in front of me," Mr. Duncan told the New York Post. "Graduation rates are up. Test scores are up. Teacher salaries are up. Social promotion was eliminated. Dramatically increasing parental choice. That's real progress." [snip]

Opponents of school choice for poor children have long claimed they'd support vouchers if there was evidence that they work. While running for President last year, Mr. Obama told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that if he saw more proof that they were successful, he would "not allow my predisposition to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn . . . You do what works for the kids." Except, apparently, when what works is opposed by unions.

Mr. Duncan's office spurned our repeated calls and emails asking what and when he and his aides knew about these results. We do know the Administration prohibited anyone involved with the evaluation from discussing it publicly. You'd think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program. A reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Duncan's department didn't want proof of voucher success to interfere with Senator Dick Durbin's campaign to kill vouchers at the behest of the teachers unions.

Some questions even from the left: 

Johnson, of BET and the Tom Joyner show, describes a similar transformation.

He was so moved during the inauguration ceremonies that he cried on air while hosting BET's coverage. But that was the day his celebration stopped and his question quickly became: "Now what's he going to do?"

"With the state of the economy, the fact that we're at war on at least two fronts, we're dealing with 50 percent dropout rates for some high school students, we're losing jobs -- we don't have time to celebrate nothing," Johnson says. "Anybody who cares about making history more than they care about the transformation of their community and their country has a real misplaced understanding of what making history is supposed to mean. . . . The person that I believe we voted for doesn't want us to continue to celebrate him."

Related posts: Do as I say Dems, Rev. Isaac Hayes on DC Choice