Morning Bell: The Audacity of Hypocrisy
Conn Carroll /
President Barack Obama may have written a best-selling book with the word “audacity” in the title, but so far Education Secretary Arne Duncan is the member of his administration that best embodies that word. Secretary Duncan wrote in the Wall Street Journal this week “When parents recognize which schools are failing to educate their children, they will demand more effective options for their kids. They won’t care whether they are charters, non-charters or some other model. … We must close the achievement gap by pursuing what works best for kids, regardless of ideology. In the path to a better education system, that’s the only test that really matters.”
These lines were published under Duncan’s name a mere 16 days after he sent letters to 200 District of Columbia low-income families informing them that he was taking back the $7,500 in scholarship money that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program had previously awarded them. And those letters were sent months after a Department of Education study showed the students in the scholarship program the longest performed at reading level approximately 1.5 to 2 full school years ahead of students who applied but were not lucky enough to be admitted to the program.