Ed Sec Arne Duncan Addresses National Charter School Conference

Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education for the Obama administration, opened the 2009 National Charter School Conference by speaking about the types of reform needed in education today. He said his plan has prioritized four reforms:

1. High college-ready standards;
2. Robust, comprehensive data systems;
3. Recruit and keep the best teachers and principals; and
4. Turn around chronically underperforming schools.

He said states applying for the federal Race for the Top funds must demonstrate their acceptance of public charter schools by not having a cap on the number of charter schools that can be approved. Further stating his support for the charter school concept, Duncan said, “The charter school movement has brought about one of the most profound changes in American education.”

Duncan’s remarks about the inclusion of teacher’s unions in the charter movement brought a cool response from many of the 3,400 plus attendees to this year’s national conference. Most charter schools have at-will employees and the states bound by restrictions favoring teacher’s unions are considered to have weaker charter school laws.

Duncan spent the majority of his speech addressing turnaround schools, his plan to improve underperforming public schools. Duncan’s options for these transformations include 1) replacing all the adults in the building and using a new curriculum; 2) becoming a charter school; or 3) replacing a portion of the adults and a portion of the curriculum. He emphasized that administrators and teachers must “move outside of their comfort zone and behave differently” in order to bring about true reform.

Additionally, Duncan encouraged the charter school movement to focus on quality instead of quality and demand excellence from individual charter schools. He said, “Don’t defend or make excuses for failing charter schools; our children have only one opportunity for a good education.”