Duncan to NEA: Reform Now

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, recently spoke to the National Education Association, NEA. Duncan expressed federal stimulus money will be handed out to states more open to reform; charter schools and merit pay are the main focuses. According to Education Week:

Speaking before 6,500 officials and local delegates of the NEA, who are meeting here for the union’s annual Representative Assembly, Mr. Duncan underscored compensation, evaluation, and tenure reform as crucial to improving the quality of the education workforce.

“I believe that teacher unions are at a crossroads. These policies were created over the past century to protect the rights of teachers, but they have produced an industrial, factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets,” Mr. Duncan said. “When inflexible seniority and rigid tenure rules that we designed put adults ahead of children, then we are not only putting kids at risk, we’re putting the entire education system at risk. We’re inviting the attack of parents and the public, and that is not good for any of us.”

Basically saying the status quo is only hurting our children and the entire education system. It is past time for change but it is never too late. Slowly but surely, states are open to reform. Lets get the ball rolling!

Missouri Has One Year to Get Act Together

Arne Duncan is a supporter of certain education reform ideas, such as charter schools and merit pay. The US Department of Education has now laid out very specific rules to get education stimulus dollars. There are two rounds in this process, trying to give states a second chance at applying for stimulus money if they didn't make the cut the first time. Missouri could have a chance if they would lighten up on some of the charter school laws!
According to Education Week:

Applications will be due in December and June. So states that have charter school caps, for instance, have a year (as Duncan might say) to get their act together and lift those caps!

It looks like these deadlines will apply only to the $4 billion in state grants, not to the $350 million that's been set aside for new assessments, nor for the $650 million in innovation grants available to school districts and nonprofit groups.

The deadlines are:

Late July: The Department will publish a notice of proposed rule making in the Federal Register, inviting public comment for 30 days on the proposed grant application and the criteria for evaluating the states' applications.

October: Notice inviting applications will be published in the Federal Register.

December: Phase 1 applications will be due.

March 2010: Phase 1 grants awarded, winners announced.

June 2010: Phase 2 applications will be due.

September 2010: Phase 2 grants awarded, winners announced.

Arne Duncan Shows Support for Good Education Reforms Ideas

Duncan comes out praising merit pay for teachers and the expansion of charter schools. Duncan believes teachers should embrace merit pay, and it "He says he wants it done with teachers, not to teachers."

Charter schools offer children options they may not have in their current public schools and Duncan is trying to promote charter schools: (From the Teacher Magazine)

Charter schools are publicly funded but operate independently of local school boards, often free from the constraints of union contracts in traditional public schools. As a result, they are hotly opposed by teachers and other critics who say they drain money and talent from other public schools.

Duncan has criticized states where lawmakers have resisted efforts to allow more charters to open, such as Illinois, or more children to enroll in them, such as Tennessee. He has said states will hurt their chance to compete for stimulus dollars if they fail to embrace innovations like charter schools.

Arne Duncan, Education Secretary Quote of the Day

The stimulus bill has everyone up in arms. During the discussions over how the stimulus will impact education, Duncan was quoted in the Washington Post saying "School buildings don't belong to us. They don't belong to the unions. School buildings belong to the community...Almost every school building has classrooms. They have computer labs. They have libraries. . . . Why are they open six hours a day? It's crazy."
Let's see how this compares to the dire situation in St. Louis. Many SLPS will be closing their doors, yet the SAB is trying to restrict the sale of those buildings. They say charter schools and private schools cannot buy these buildings for 100 years. What would Duncan say about this?