Posted on 03/24/2010 5:01:30 PM PDT by Kaslin
Politics: Education Secretary Arne Duncan taught us Orwell this week, showing how some are more equal than others with his VIP list for admission to Chicago's best schools. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there.
Duncan, hailed as a miracle-working reformer in the Chicago school system he once led, didn't quite persuade that city's well-connected elites of the value of his reforms, given the number who sought placement in the district's better schools.
Duncan insists it was just an appeals list on which parents could place kids who didn't make it into the schools they wanted. He says that he didn't do any lobbying for special placements.
"We were always very clear with them that it was up to the principal to make the decisions," Duncan's ex-flack, Peter Cunningham, now assistant secretary of education, told the Chicago Tribune.
But that argument doesn't hold water, given that the list was kept secret from the public and Duncan's initials appeared on 50 placement appeals, along with those of his wife, his mother and other political insiders with the clout to decide who got onto the list.
Duncan's staff also made calls to principals. So those initials wouldn't carry any weight now, would they? And if they meant nothing, why were they there at all?
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Arne Duncan is absolute Chicago scum, just like his replacement, Ron Huberman, and every other pol this rotten town produced. We need Malone, Ness and Stone to clean this place up again. Bring on The Untouchables!
The presumption of this scandal is that rich people should have to send their kids to the same horrible public schools that everyone else has to use. The question is never considered why it is that we should all (rich and poor) be enslaved to the public schools in the first place.
If they could just find more like Marva Collins to teach in those schools with lower achievements, all schools could be good schools. Higher salaries could be ncentive for those teachers successful in stimulating higher grades in the classrooms. That way everyone would be winners.
It goes to show that George Orwell's "Animal Farm" observation that as pious socialist pigs declare that "all animals are equal," the reality is that some "are more equal than others."
In the Soviet Union, the practice was so entrenched in the corrupt system that the groups with special privileges had a name: "nomenklatura." Those who were part of it had special access
Duncan's list is an inkling of the same monster that's in store for us as the Obama administration in league with the Democratic leadership seek to place government in every aspect of our lives.
--These people will now control who gets what healthcare, and what school loans. Bills are written for special groups.
Love that his wife and mother got to decided too.
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