US News
Obama unveils education secretary
Dec 16, 2008, 18:40 GMT
Washington - President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped a long-time friend and head of Chicago's school system to become education secretary, vowing to boost student achievement that is key to US competitiveness in the future.
Arne Duncan, 44, a one-time professional athlete, has been chief executive of Chicago's public schools since 2001. His work has been met with praise from both sides of the political aisle, including from President George W Bush's current Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.
As the US battles through a year-long recession, Obama said improving education would be 'the single biggest determinant of how our economy does long term' and was critical to the country's competitiveness and economic performance.
'The path to jobs and growth begins right here in America's schools,' Obama said in a Chicago press conference. 'If we want to outcompete the world tomorrow, then we're gonna have to out-educate the world today.'
How to improve education nationally has been a running dispute in US politics. High school students in the world's largest economy have consistently trailed their peers in many other developed countries in math and science proficiency, while the cost of university education has become prohibitive to many Americans.
Obama has promised to recruit an 'army' of new teachers and suggested subsidizing university tuition in exchange for community service, but he has given few specifics on his policy plans.
Duncan, 44, leads the third-largest school district in the United States. Obama cited Duncan's willingness to explore new ideas - including offering students money for strong test performances - as a model he hoped to bring to the federal level.
Chicago has seen a 'continuous, steady improvement' in test scores and performance over the passed seven years of his tenure, Obama said.
Duncan, a former professional basketball player, has played regularly with Obama during their time in Chicago.
'I know from experience that when you focus on basics like reading and math, when you embrace innovative new approaches to learning, and when you create a professional climate that attracts great teachers - - you can make a difference for children,' Duncan said.
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Older Talkback
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OK before they come in - it is SPLENDOUR or SPLENDOR.
My key missed a beat.
so did you!
that the incoming Education Secretary can do something about raising the levels in the USA. If the examples set forth on this site represent the country, then the country is riddled with morons.
I agree. The poor spelling and sentence structure of so many adults are off the charts. With all the budget cuts that have happened in the last 8 years in the school systems, the young people in this country are going to fare much worse - especially those who need that extra boost and encouragement. Let's hope that this new administration can help turn these problems around, and put more concentration and funds toward the education of the people who will be the leaders of tomorrow.
...taken a look at the results of federal education efforts, over the last 40 years?
Examine test scores from 1962 on and witness the steady slide in every subject. Then, examine the dollars put towards an effort that, if measured as such, delivers you to the undeniable conclusion that none of the money thrown has delivered a single result.
Need an example?
Go to Washington D.C.
Here is a school system, funded ENTIRELY by federal funds.
Results?
Possibly the highest cost per student and one of the lowest set of test scores in America. The schools?
So bad, even the liberals are now screaming for Vouchers. How many more Presidents do we need to hear call themselves the 'education' president, and then mete out Education funds to support unionized educators, before we wake up? Afer all, it's only been 40 years.
You have unions breaking the auto companies. What do you think they've done to your schools?
spooks are here on this article. Number 1 spook SP4 lecturing again on something he does not have a clue about. The guy must be a real nut-job who likes to listen to himself as he is always wrong.
Well, as far as funds being taken from school programs and courses dropped because of lack of funding is something I've been personally involved with in my area, and it isn't good. So rattle your cage, SP, education isn't being overfunded in all areas.
Why should anyone be surprised by this appointment? The system that produced, aided and abetted William Ayers will now enjoy having an Ayers protege as appointed to it head by the US President.
The answer is here:
www.apollogrp.edu/
or something like it. Of course, we have to worry about this kind of concern being polluted by the ''professional educators'' like William Ayers, but at least with this kind of system we have a chance of having more influence over the minds of our children.
The elephants will never stop blowing their trunks!
Let me articulate the point one more time: I don't care WHAT is funded or not, NONE of THE FED ED has produced a bEtTer education result in America in the last 40 years.
GET IT??????????????
The problem is unionized teachers (like unionized auto workers), students not ready to learn, casterated administrators.
To understand how bad the American education system is, one need merely read the headlines over the past two months or so. The people who have gotten us into this crisis are all well educated or highly highly educated. Some of them have doctorates in their chosen fields. They are shining proof that it is possible to emerge from our education system with a degree and excellent grades and still be mis-educated. The mistakes that have been made are very basic.
During WWII we fought a war on three and four fronts at the same time against different nations that were using wildly different strategies against us. We marshaled our industrial strength and with the help of our allies we defeated every last one of them. FDR, for all his flaws, was able to take care of more than one thing during the course of our day. Compare that with the performance of the Bush Administration.
FDR would never have tolerated a Federal Reserve or a Fannie Mae or a Freddie Mac that has behaved as those institutions have behaved since about 1990. Many were already warning about them back in the late seventies. FDR, despite is leftwing politics understood basic arithmetic and understood that it applies equally everywhere and that you cannot ignore these facts. Our current crop of leadership has been taught that such thinking is 'old fashioned' or obsolescent. Even Harry Truman, a man who was self-educated by reading books in the public libraries, was better educated than this crowd of nincompoops ruining our nation today.
Regarding: 'The elephants will never stop blowing their trunks!'
If you are referring to Diogenese, I'm afraid you have the wrong piece of anatomy. He's blowing it out his arse.
FDR and Truman had the luxury of a federal government unhampered by some of the stifling Bureaucracy we have today. They had wartime control of most federal institutions, no Habeas Corpus (there is a lesson there, professor) inturred ethnic minorities(japanese) and pretty much ran by decree.
Education, back then, was locally controlled and funded. The University system and Ivy League institutions, plus the military colleges managed to turn out educated men and women who built the largest, most effective military in history, and developed the atom bomb. All of this ed was done without any real fed ed at the primary and secondary levels.
Familes used to live together. Grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc., were all in proximity, or even in the home. A child had three generations to look at, and be with, for most of it's upbringing. There was no TV, and living was harder, so people were closer. We still see this in other less developed nations, or in close-knit religious communities such as the Amish, who have few of the problems many americans experience.
The parent is the primary teacher.
From 1945 to 1962, education levels of achievement rose to a pinnicle then stopped. This is exactly when federal education was born. From 1962 to today, it has been steadily declining.
The largest single reason was the class of 1963. This was the year baby boomers graduated from high school. Before this class, most students started in classrooms that were either half the size or multilevel. Once these boomers came in, in 1951, the manufacturing philosophy took over.
That was the death roll for prewar education. It steadily became more manufactured, unionized, and less effective. Also, the mom left the home, the grandparents were no longer living in the rural house model, the relatives were somewhere else, huge social implications. Families no longer lived together.
Now we are lucky to have even one parent in the home. The grandparents, a staple in other cultures, are non-existent in our culture as are most other relatives. The child has little sense of family, TV dominates in every home, and we wonder why education is where it is.
Golly, what a surprise.
Generalizations don't work. Some schools/colleges ARE losing funding for courses that have to eliminated - something that needs to be addressed along with a myriad of other problems in education.
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ANOTHER BUM ENROLEDDec 16th, 2008 - 21:47:38
The OBANANARAMA simply grows and grows in magnificent spledour.
It will soon far outshine Barnham & Bailey, the icon of American circus`s.
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