Friday, August 7, 2009

Is Arne Duncan Destroying the Obama Brand?


Education blogs today were transfixed by US Education Secretary Arne Duncan's gushing appreciation for the New York Post's contribution to the mayoral control debate here in NYC.

From the Post's story:

Arne Duncan, the US secretary of education, lauded The Post's coverage.

"I appreciate your paper's leadership. I appreciate the thoughtfulness. You guys did a lot of work on [the mayoral-control issue]," Duncan said.

Gotham Schools has a genuinely thoughtful analysis entitled "The Fruitful Alliance of Arne Duncan and Rupert Murdoch" including some great quotes from incredulous education and journalism insiders.

NYC Educator's scathing commentary dismisses Duncan as "cheerleader for the Bloomberg PR machine".

The President ought to watch his back. The Post's circulation dropped 21% this year. With his own numbers headed south as well, he might want to suggest his Education Secretary find some new friends.

4 comments:

  1. Obama should replace Duncan with someone who actually knows about education, not the corporate version and scam that Duncan is part of. Obama may not be getting my vote again if "change" does not occur soon. Duncan is Bush league.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arne Duncan has certainly depleted much of my enthusiasm for the Obama administration. He has also been a huge distraction for many educators. I know I should be focusing on health care reform, but instead I'm worrying what to do about the Race to the Trough and the intensification of NCLB.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am in total agreement with the comments made by Ms. Tsouris and Melody: I, too, am so disturbed by Arne Duncan and his educational ideas and policies that I have often asked myself: "Why on earth did you vote for Obama?" In fact, if President Obama and Arne Duncan keep it up with this educational mess, Obama will never again in life get my vote.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I campaigned for Obama, but will not vote for him again. Friends of my enemies are not my friends. I am a nyc public school teacher, and Bloomberg is not my friend. He is not my students' friend, either. I am looking for an alternative candidate to support in the next presidential election, which means looking for an alternative party.

    ReplyDelete