Arne Duncan's graduation rate scandal

Duncan ignores kids, consults with Sharpton

In the midst of Syracuse University Basketball's NCAA Tournament run, Barry Obama's "secretary of education," Arne Duncan, decided to attack the Orange and Coach Jim Boeheim:

Pittsburgh – After his team’s victory over UNC Asheville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim took on another opponent.

Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education.

Duncan singled out Boeheim on Wednesday in a conference call with news reporters about the graduation rates of NCAA basketball tournament teams.

Yes, so-called "educator" Duncan thought he could piggyback on the Tournament's publicity.

A story with Duncan’s comments ran in Thursday’s editions of USA Today and was accompanied by a column that chastised Syracuse for the academic performance within its men’s basketball program.

Coach Boeheim dosen't need our help to reject Duncan's forced shot.  In the post-Ashville press conference, the Coach explained:

Boeheim had one final jab left for Duncan, who played at Harvard.

“I don't think Harvard was punished when Bill Gates left early,’’ Boeheim said. “I don't think they were. I don't think he did too badly. We've also had five or six guys who left early, went to the NBA, played, and came back and graduated. We helped them graduate. We have two or three right now that are very close to graduating who are done playing with their NBA careers.

“So education is paramount to me,’’ he continued. “We want every guy to graduate, and we work very hard on that. So I think it's fair to say that I'm upset right now.’’

The bigger question here is: who is this annoying Duncan and why does have have anything to do with our children's education?  It turns out Duncan was raised among the swells in Chicago's exclusive Hyde Park neighborhood, the same side of the tracks where unrepentant terrorist William Ayers launched Four Dollar Barry's political career.

Duncan played basketball at Harvard University and had a brief professional hardwood career in Australia.  His time after returning to Chicago seems to have found Duncan involved in various non-profits, but Arne had never taught school for a single day at any level when second generation Chicago Democrat machine Mayor Richard M. Daley made him head of Chicago's failing public school system in 2001.  Even fellow Democrats recognize the destruction that Duncan left behind in the Windy City's schools.  New Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Obama chief of staff, has it in for Arne:

Rahm is still steaming about the contracts negotiated by Daley and Arne Duncan—who was then running CPS and is now the nation’s education secretary—which gave teachers hefty pay increases and a shorter school year. “I know what the teachers got, and I know what the politicians got,” he says, meaning no strike. “But I don’t know what the kids got.”

The Chicago public school system operates seven community colleges.  As head of Chicago's schools, Duncan was responsible for those seven institutions.  What about the graduation rate at Duncan's own legacy college system - why, it's seven percent!

If low graduation and student transfer rates at City Colleges of Chicago don’t start improving, the system’s leaders could lose their jobs. That’s because the formal job responsibilities of the chancellor, presidents and even trustees include graduation rate goals.

Cheryl L. Hyman, chancellor of City Colleges, began a “reinvention” of the system soon after her arrival in 2010. While the seven-college system has long welcomed urban, lower-income students who have few higher education options, Hyman argues that it hasn't done enough to help students graduate and get jobs...

“You cannot continue with a 7 percent graduation rate,” said Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor, at news conference last summer. “We owe the taxpayers – and most importantly the students – a better community college system.”

In light of the fact that non-educator Duncan is an expert on college graduation rates, we demand he abandon his war on success and resign from the federal government.  Seven Percent Arne needs to return to Chicago to deal with the disaster he left behind.