Education: December 2008 Archives

The Hound watches with amazement as President-elect Obama is packing his cabinet with two more Illinosans. This in the midst of the state being the butt of every late-night comedian. Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan was tabbed Tuesday as education secretary, while retiring Republican Congressman Ray LaHood of Peoria is expected to be named transportation secretary today.

But, The Hound is more interested in Mr. Duncan, who has run the CPS for the past seven years. Let's all bring what we've learned in the Chicago school system to Washington, D.C. This is a school system where kids get shot going to and from class; where state Sen. James Meeks told students to boycott classes this fall because funding is nowhere near the levels of suburban schools, most notably New Trier High School.

Of anyone, Duncan should know that if Chicago parents could enroll their kids in suburban schools, they'd do so in a New York minute. The district is top-heavy with administrators and beholden to the teachers' union. Sort of like the U.S. Department of Education.

The Hound is certain there were probably more-qualified candidates for the education job --- like Paul Vallas, Duncan's former CPS boss who also has headed Philadelphia and New Orleans school systems. But only the Harvard-educated Duncan plays a mean hoops game, which the new president enjoys engaging in. Let's see if Duncan can slam-dunk the nation's educational problems.

For some time there has been a feeling in this country that language discourse has dropped to a level befitting Cro-Magnon men and women. Teachers have blamed television for this and now have a new culprit in the cell phone and text messaging. Yet, they need look no further than our politicians.

Consider the salty language used by "Lightning Rod" Blagojevich as heard by FBI agents who taped the governor's devious and many shake-down conversations. Talk about your f-bombs. Several longshoremen at the Port of Chicago were appalled at the governor's art of swearing. Even U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald parsed the "bleeping" words during his press conference earlier this week.

While certainly our public officials can swear with the best of them, it is slightly shocking to hear our governor call our next president a dirty name. He has to do something bad to get called that name. The Hound has heard George Bush called nasty names on numerous occasions by people whose IRAs and 401 (k)s are sinking faster than the soon-to-be-ex-president's legacy.

But it seems not only does the governor --- a graduate of Northwestern University --- have a potty mouth, but so does his lovely wife, Patti. Hope they don't use that type of foul language around their kids. That would be a real class in language arts .

Where were all those folks pushing for a charter high school in Waukegan the other night when the District 60 school board quashed opening one in the city? Supposedly, hundreds of parents wanted their kids to attend this charter school proffered by a Chicago-based charter school group. From the picture in The News-Sun, The Hound has seen more people at a cat fight.

Rejecting the charter school was no surprise, but one would think there would have been voices raised at the school board session in its defense after officials released their 21-page analysis of the proposal. After all, who wants to lose tax dollars?

Time will tell if this was a good decision. Certainly, the folks who were backing it will think twice about asking the state to go ahead with the project. After all, why would you work to get a charter school in a community that doesn't want you?

The grand "small learning communities" plan has been touted as a better alternative than a charter high school. Let's see if this plan raises test scores and gives the city's students a better education than a charter school. As one parent told The Hound: "The city has to do something to make the schools inviting so people stay in the community and want to move into the community."

The ball is now in the "small learning communities" court, so to speak.

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