News and commentary from around the Web show mixed reaction of both support and disappointment with President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.
Policy blogs and other online media show mixed reviews of Duncan’s record and his nomination to the nation’s top education post.
Numerous blogs characterize Duncan as a centrist not married to any one ideology, while others characterize his plan of shutting down schools as being “radical.” Still, other blogs call him a corporate educator, short on practical experience.
On his blog, Flypaper, Mike Petrilli of the nonprofit education think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, calls Duncan a “consensus candidate bridging the gap between two camps within the Democratic Party (the reformers and the establishment). But he’s not so much a compromise as a canvas upon which people of various persuasions can paint their hopes and dreams (much like his boss).
“To the reformers, he’s a crusader for charter schools and merit pay. To the unions he’s a conciliator and peacemaker,” Petrilli continues. “To (No Child Left Behind) supporters he’s an accountability hawk. To NCLB detractors he’s a ‘flexibility’ proponent. Which of these things is he really? Time will tell.”
Education Sector, an independent research organization, concurs. Their blog, eduwonk, says Duncan is “someone who would be a logical and effective pick for an Obama secretary of education and someone who can put together a real accountability-plus agenda that holds the line on accountability while building a coalition around other supports for children.”
Perhaps one of the more intriguing developments in the blogosphere is that Duncan is getting rave reviews from some conservative bloggers and think tanks — though not all — such as the Heritage Foundation, while more liberal bloggers and groups are less enthusiastic. Many liberals appear to have wanted Obama to choose Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond instead.
