Duncan's track record

[NYC_SKP]

2. I haven't met Arne Duncan, but I do know this.

Educational programs are complex and mysterious, even to employees within them. I liked this part of the story:

President-elect Barack Obama has promised more responsive and transparent governance of the country. Duncan did the same when he took over, promising to flood schools with data for them to make better decisions.

Since then, the district has released a deluge of data around student learning. Its website is a treasure trove of school-by-school and grade-by-grade performance measures ranging from attendance and freshmen “on-track” rates to “value-added” test score gains.

But little has been done to shed light on district spending decisions, particularly construction and renovation budgets. CPS continues to gather input on capital needs through public meetings, but it has not laid out a clear spending strategy nor has it ranked renovation priorities from school to school. Community groups have long demanded, in vain, for just such a plan.

People take an awful lot of crap from people of all political sides, left and right, and much of it undeserved.

Just today my cousin was railing about high gas prices and Obama's opposition to the Keystone pipeline deal.

One has nothing to do with the other.