“NYSUT has always considered John King an ideologue with whom we disagreed sharply on many issues during his tenure as the state’s Education Department commissioner”.
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“Secretary Duncan advanced a vision of preschool for our nation which rightly makes the link between high quality early learning experiences for children and the compensation and qualifications of their teachers”, says Marcy Whitebook, director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. “He’s been one of the most energetic and transparent secretaries that we’ve seen in many years”. “It goes back to 1965”. He stressed a focus on equity, excellence, and innovation.
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average yearly salary for the 4 million teachers in USA public schools is $55,510. His signature initiative was Race to the Top, in which states competed for federal grants, with strings attached.
The state also saw an unprecedented wave of students opting out of standardized tests this year: almost one in five didn’t take the required state reading and math exams. In July 2014, delegates of the National Education Association called on Duncan to resign over policies they said hurt teachers and unions.
The other remarkable thing about Duncan’s tenure isn’t one of those ideas but how he fought for them all.
Several individuals expressed support and admiration for Duncan, citing his efforts to invest in technology, empower students of color, and more. “Probably Dick Riley was the last secretary that had this degree of visibility that he had”.
“I’ve cried more today than I have in awhile”, Duncan began. It was also handed down before the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which meant students for a time may have had to pay more for education when the federal government wasn’t recognizing same-sex marriages for the purposes of positive benefits. And Duncan was sometimes his own worst enemy, PR-wise.
An original member of the Obama administration and former head of Chicago Public Schools, he won praise from supporters for pushing higher standards, supporting charter schools, significantly expanding federal financial aid and cracking down on corrupt for-profit colleges. After all, he said Friday, it was for him. “NYSUT urges its members to call the White House switchboard at202-456-1414 – as well as a special White House telephone line dedicated to public comments at 202-456-1111 – to express their displeasure in John King’s appointment”.
“Everything he did was for the benefit of students”, she said. “It’s too early to judge”.
Mr. Duncan and President Obama have played pickup basketball together since the 1990s, keeping up the habit throughout Mr. Obama’s presidency. “As a country, we must all work together to take action against bullying and improve the safety climates of our schools and communities”. “We know the impact of a strong school leader, especially for schools with the greatest needs”.
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John King Jr., the Education Department official who’s been picked to succeed Arne Duncan as education secretary, is no stranger to the kinds of battles Duncan has spent seven years fighting. But, she added, “there’s no question that the Department of Education’s fixation on charters and high-stakes testing has not worked”.
