Federal

Duncan Courts State Lawmakers on Reform Agenda

June 14, 2010 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Seeking more allies for his school improvement agenda, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today asked a select group of state legislators to keep “pushing very, very hard” on the policy levers that he and President Barack Obama have made a top priority.

Mr. Duncan also asked the lawmakers to back the administration’s beleaguered $23 billion jobs package that he has said is crucial for saving hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs.

“We need bipartisan support for this,” he said, asking them to use “your collective voices, as much as you are comfortable talking about this.”

The lawmakers, representing 17 states, spent the day at the Education Department’s Washington headquarters listening to presentations and asking questions of Duncan’s top deputies. The day-long affair ended with a 45-minute question and answer session with the secretary, who praised state legislatures for a series of new laws and changes to K-12 policy that have been driven, in large part, by the $4 billion Race to the Top competition.

Mr. Duncan called the amount of change to state laws over the last 18 months “stunning to me,” and told the 25 lawmakers that he needed their support even more because of the turnover in state schools’ chiefs and governors expected as a result of this fall’s elections.

The praise he issued to the lawmakers was mutual, at least during the question and answer session. Notably, none of the lawmakers asked Mr. Duncan about the more controversial pieces of the Obama administration’s education agenda: the required methods for turning around low-performing schools, which have brought pushback from state schools’ chiefs, local education leaders, and members of Congress; and the proposal to streamline programs in the federal education budget and make some of them into competitive grants, rather than formula-driven programs.

“They are definitely looking for allies and for supporters,” said Maryland State Sen. Nancy J. King, a Democrat from Montgomery County.

But the legislators were apparently tougher on Mr. Duncan’s deputies who discussed a range of topics with them, including the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the $3.5 billion Title One School Improvement Grant program.

“Performance pay for teachers didn’t fly at all with this group,” said Ms. King, who is a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures and sits on that organization’s education committee. “But it’s good the department met with us. We’ve been pushing for the department to put us into the discussions since we are the ones who have to fund education in our states.”

Mr. Duncan used his time with the lawmakers to say that the administration does not view charter schools as the answer to closing the achievement gap between affluent students and their low-income peers. He also went out of his way to downplay what he said was the media’s misportrayal of the administration’s agenda as a battle between education reformers and teachers’ unions.

“Resist those easy platitudes and narratives,” he said. “There are dozens of examples of breathtaking union leadership.”

Of course, Mr. Duncan couldn’t escape without at least a few questions on the second round of the Race to the Top sweepstakes. A state senator from Florida asked him pointedly what is the “number-one thing” he wants to see in the applications, which were turned in by 35 states and the District of Columbia on June 1.

He didn’t offer anything too revealing, other than to say, “I don’t want watered-down reform and ‘Kumbaya’ around the status quo.” Too bad no lawmaker followed up to ask him what he thought of those district and union side deals in Florida.

UPDATE: The 17 states represented at the Education Department yesterday were: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Sandra Abrevaya, an Education Department spokeswoman, said that every education committee chairperson from all state legislatures was invited to attend the event, along with the majority and minority leaders from every statehouse. Of those who came, 22 were Democrats and three were Republicans.

A version of this news article first appeared in the State EdWatch blog.

Events

Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal An Ed. Dept. Staffer's 6,000-Mile Journey to Find Closure After Abrupt Job Loss
Jane Hodgdon took to the road to visit schools she had worked with in her 25 years at the U.S. Department of Education.
7 min read
Jane Hodgdon, a former 25 year employee of the US Department of Education, stands for a portrait with her dog Maxine, while touring Shelby County Public Schools’ Magic School Bus summer program on Thursday, June 5, 2025 in Simpsonville, Kentucky.
Jane Hodgdon stands with her dog Maxine while touring Shelby County Public Schools’ Magic School Bus summer program on Thursday, June 5, 2025 in Simpsonville, Ky. After an abrupt end to her 25-year career at the U.S. Department of Education, Hodgdon embarked on a road trip to visit schools and educators she had worked with during her time at the federal agency.
Luke Sharrett for Education Week
Federal Trump Admin. Was Moving Ed. Dept. Programs Elsewhere Before a Court Intervened
The department had penned agreements with the U.S. departments of Labor and the Treasury to move programs, but was halted by court order.
8 min read
A Morehouse College student lines up before the school commencement, May 19, 2024, in Atlanta. The Education Department announced on July 18, 2024, that it is cancelling an additional $1.2 billion in student loans for borrowers who work in public service.
A Morehouse College student lines up before the school commencement on May 19, 2024, in Atlanta. The U.S. Department of Education had started to work with the U.S. Department of the Treasury on transferring its student loan portfolio, a new court filing shows.
Seth Wenig/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Adds Project 2025 Author to Education Department Staff
The appointment comes as Trump has already begun to embrace plans outlined in the controversial 900-page conservative policy agenda.
4 min read
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. The Trump administration has added the author of the conservative policy document's chapter on education to the U.S. Department of Education's staff.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Pauses Ed. Dept. Layoffs After Judge's Order
The U.S. Department of Education is slowly complying with a federal court order to reinstate staff.
3 min read
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the office of general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025, the last day of work for hundreds of agency employees. The Trump administration has had to bump back the day it planned to stop paying laid-off staff.
Jose Luis Magana/AP