Arne Duncan
Arne Duncan
Arne Duncanwas the United States Secretary of Education from 2009 through early 2016. His tenure as Secretary was marked by controversy. Conservatives and some parents opposed his push for all U.S. states to adopt the Common Core Standards to determine what students had learned, and teachers unions disliked his emphasis on the use of data from student tests to evaluate teachers and schools. When Duncan announced his resignation the president of the AFT teachers union said, "there’s no question that...
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth6 November 1964
CityChicago, IL
Arne Duncan quotes about
I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina,
We've seen more reform in the last year than we've seen in decades, and we haven't spent a dime yet. It's staggering how the Recovery Act is driving change.
Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense.
Teachers say their schools of education did not adequately prepare them for the classroom. They would have welcomed more mentoring and feedback in their early years.
Research shows that children do better in school and are less likely to drop out when fathers are involved. Engaged parents can strengthen communities, mentor and tutor students, and demonstrate through their actions how much they value their children's education.
To encourage more top-caliber students to choose teaching, teachers should be paid a lot more, with starting salaries more in the range of $60,000 and potential earnings of as much as $150,000.
Most teachers still say they love teaching though they wouldn't mind a little more respect for their challenging work and a little less blame for America's educational shortcomings.
City Year is taking on some of the toughest work in education.
Young people know how important it is for dads to be involved in their lives. As I travel the country and talk with students, some of them tell me that their lives would be totally different if their father was around.
Whether it's in an inner-city school or a rural community, I want those students to have a chance to take A.P. biology and A.P. physics and marine biology.
We all have a role to play - the President, Congress, parents, students and schools - in making college affordable and keeping the middle class dream alive.
Surveys show that many talented and committed young people are reluctant to enter teaching for the long haul because they think the profession is low-paying and not prestigious enough.
I worry when athletes are simply used by their universities to produce revenue, to make money for them, nothing to show at the back end. I grew up with a lot of players who had very, very tough lives after the ball started bouncing for them. And that's why I'm going to continue to fight.
State governments generate less revenue in a recession. As state leaders struggle to make up for lost revenue, legislatures tend to cut funding for higher education. Colleges, in turn, answer these funding cuts with tuition hikes.