(CNSNews.com) – In 2007, only 17 percent of eighth graders tested at or above grade level in reading in Chicago Public Schools – the school system administered by Arne Duncan since 2001.Oh goody! His lessons learned led to this:
President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped Duncan to become secretary of education in the upcoming administration.
Duncan, hailed by Obama as a reformer, said he would like to take the lessons he learned in Chicago with him when he moves to Washington.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report for 2007, Chicago public schools have consistently performed below the national average during Duncan’s tenureBut here's the important part for Mr. Trillion Dollar Stimulus Package:
Nationally, Chicago is the third largest school district with over 408,000 students. Its budget for 2007-2008 was $4.6 billion, according to information released by Chicago Public Schools. $862 million of that was supplied by the federal government.At least there was some payoff for this money, right?
Under Duncan, Chicago Public Schools spent $10,555 per pupil
During Duncan’s tenure, the Chicago district did not significantly increase its scores in reading, rising only one point on average from 2002 to 2007 – from 249 of a possible 500 in 2002, to 250 in 2007.Err, maybe not.
He's a perfect fit, don't you think? He turns money into confetti and produces nothing. Hope and change! (Just keep repeating that over and over again. It helps. Trust me.)
According to the statisics on this page, he would have been well advised to get somebody who was in charge in the Minnesota or Washington State schools.
ReplyDeleteIt could have been worse, though. He could have picked somebody responsible for the California schools (which are even worse than the Illinois schools in the categories that matter, like academic achievement and return on investment).
I can't say I'm overall that pleased with how Michigan shapes up here, but on the other hand, we are pretty much dead-average in all categories, so there's always somebody doing *worse*. And looking at the states that do best on the combination of academic achievement and return on investment, it looks like rural schools are the way to go.
My kids go to Catholic schools, so to tell you the truth, I don't pay much attention to this kind of thing. When it comes time to get a job, they'll be competing with Arne's pupils (or the poor devils sentenced to do time in the California public schools) and mopping the floor with them.
ReplyDeleteKT, tsk, tsk. For such a smart kitty, you sometimes miss the point.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the kind of person that the left wants in charge.
Think about what they want; 1) No one is ever wrong, so no one should ever feel bad, and 2) everyone should be "average". The only way to accomplish those two goals is to assure that no one ever actually succeeds (soak the rich - spread the wealth, no child left behind, etc).
So, clearly, he has not been in charge of a failing system. Quite the opposite, he's leading the charge down!
"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." Ronald Reagan quoting Abraham Lincoln.
How often we forget and must be reminded...