What's the cosmic significance of the Arne Duncan pick???The Wall Street??Journal's Gerald Seib, channeling Checker, says that it proves President-Elect Obama's pragmatism:
The real prototype of Obama appointees, though, may be Mr. Duncan, the Chicago schools chief who is to become education secretary. A Harvard graduate, onetime professional basketball player in Australia, and friend of the president-to-be, Mr. Duncan has managed to build a reputation as a school reformer without winning the enmity of the teachers unions that often resist school reforms.How did he do that? "He's a little bit of a Rorschach figure; you can read into him what you want," says Chester Finn, a conservative education expert who served in the Reagan education department yet praises the Duncan selection. He calls Mr. Duncan a "rounded-edges kind of guy" who has "closed some schools but hasn't had mass layoffs" among teachers. "He's a pragmatist, I guess," Mr. Finn concludes. At this point, at least, that seems an apt description of much of the emerging Team Obama.
The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, channeling (Fordham trustee) Diane Ravitch, says that it shows that you can be pro-union and pro-school reform:
To declare that the only test of a politician's commitment to reform is a willingness to break with unions creates a no-win choice for Democrats. They must either betray long-standing allies or face condemnation as the captives of special interests.Obama, said Diane Ravitch, an assistant secretary of education in the administration of George H.W. Bush, is trying to "break out" of a definition of reform drawn almost entirely from "the Republican agenda."
That agenda focuses on "being tough on the unions, offering more choices and pushing for more accountability." While reformers of all stripes support accountability, this list actually constrains the options for those who would improve the public schools.
See, Arne Duncan is a blank canvas!
