On one side sits the "reformers."  Upon hearing their self-proclaimed name, it sounds pretty good.  But its ranks include Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Democrats for Education Reform, and yes, Arne Duncan.  They support more standardized testing, "top-down curriculum standards and teaching mandates", rote learning, TFA, behaviorism (i.e. Arne wants to pay kids for good grades.), corporate schooling and charter schools.

Quick biography on the major players here: Joel Klein graduated from NYC's public schools in 1963, graduated from Harvard Law in 1971, worked in the White House Counsel's office and as Assistant AG in the antitrust division, in private practice and as a clerk to Justice Powell.  Michelle Rhee went to private school, graduated from Cornell with a B.A. in government, and from Harvard with a Masters in Public Policy.  Then she taught in Baltimore, MD with Teach for America (TFA) for three years.  97, she founded the New Teacher Project and then ten years later was appointed as Chancellor of the D.C. schools. 

Arne Duncan graduated from Harvard in '87, after attending private schools as a child, with a degree in sociology, played basketball for 4 years, and then went on to direct the Ariel Education Initiative, beginning in '92.  9 years later, he was appointed CEO of Chicago's public schools. 

Before Duncan, we had Spellings, who has never taught nor studied education.  (Who by the way, loves Duncan.)  Before that, we had Rod Paige, coach-turned-Dean-turned-Secretary of Education.  His dissertation was about the reaction times of football players. (Also loves Duncan.) Before that, we had Richard Riley, politician-turned Secretary of Education.  We haven't had a Secretary of Education who has worked as a teacher since the early 80s.  That's insanity. 

It's baffling and utterly frustrating.  We continue to debate over policies and practices that research has long dismissed.  We allow educational policy to be set by people who have never worked at the job they seek to control.  Instead, we've had, for 20 years, an education system run and ruled by corporate CEOs and governors.  All of this, the corporate schooling, the "reformers", seek to change schools from a top-down method. 

I thought, of all people, that Obama would understand that this, of all things, can't be generated from the top down.  How many times did we hear, "from the bottom, from the grassroots, from the people on the fronts," during the election?  It's all bullshit anyway.  Part of me knew, even then.  Anyone who speaks of education merely as a way to stay competitive in a global market doesn't hold the same views of education as I do.  But I thought....I don't know.  I thought I saw a glimmer of hope when Linda Darling-Hammond was heading the transition.  

What a monumental disappointment.  And this isn't even the half of it.  There so much more that sucks about Arne Duncan and Obama's education plan.

To be overly simplistic and overtly biased, it is a battle with people who want kids to learn on one side, and people who want kids to pass tests on the other side.