Talk:Arne Duncan

In October, 2008, as head of the Chicago Public Schools, Duncan recommended the district open its first high school specifically designed for gay, lesbian and transgender teens, saying, "If you look at national studies, you see gay and lesbian students with high dropout rates...Studies show they are disproportionately homeless...I think there is a niche there we need to fill."^[1]

Also in October, 2008, Ken Rolling, the former executive director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and associate director of the Woods Fund, both of which organizations were founded or chaired at some time by controversial figure Bill Ayers, was cited in Education Week as countering claims that the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was a failure by asserting that the project helped shape Duncan's agenda, especially related to improving teacher quality.^[2]

Seems to me adding this is an attempt at creating controversy by employing a guilt by association (however tenuous) about Duncan by injecting Bill Ayres into the article. Furthermore, Duncan being tapped as Education Secretary is actually a blow to Ayres and the others tied with Annenberg as noted by numerous political observers here, here and here. Lestatdelc (talk) 07:25, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Cases have been cited as they appear and published on the web, which makes all materials of concern available to the public seeking information and in the public domain. A book is about to be published concerning the fraud. A news article already exists and newspaper(s) will also be caring this story and the cover up. Various websites which are coving these cases exist and more materials for actual quotes are also being posted. The school with others has attempted to gag anyone who speaks. Removing it furthers the coverup.

If you have suggestions as to how to provide and note already public information, please advise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ka7hvz (talk • contribs) 14:06, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Unless there are major news sources for this information, it should not be included on Wikipedia. LQ (talk) 08:37, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons#Presumption in favor of privacy —Preceding unsigned comment added by LQ (talk • contribs) 08:46, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, there are and I have linked to one of the news papers covering the story in portland, oregon where the school is located. I have also linked to the published court sites, which happen to be public in nature as a matter of standard course. Thus, there is no privacy issues, which have not already been published or previously made available to the public. All these are searchable records, with documents that can be downloaded. Also, a book is about to be published concerning Steve Korch, the school, feds, accreditors and about this case will be placed on the web and in print (I have not linked to that yet, but will). There are various other sites being worked on (one which was linked to the wiki previously) which is posting ALL the documentation from feds, state, accreditors, school and plaintiffs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ka7hvz (talk • contribs) 10:55, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I 9and other editors) have warned the above user against the attempted insertion of this material. The details are explained in the talk page for Margaret Spellings As the user is by his own admission engaged in a lawsuit against the subject, the edits, besides being violations of BLP policy, and also being highly unreasonable, are also blatant violation of our Conflict of Interest policy. Any continuation of them will result in not justthe removal of the material, but blocking of the editor. ` DGG ( talk ) 14:15, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

In January, 2005, Arne Duncan became majority owner of Wisconsin Cheeseman, a prominent mail-order and retail cheese and novelty outlet. As such, Duncan has a cheese named after him called the Duncanter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jackson72 (talk • contribs) 06:52, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Arne Duncan has come under frequent criticism from community and parent groups for the closing and turnaround of neighborhood schools following lack of support from the Chicago Board of Education. Despite large-scale protest against 19 school closings at the February 27, 2008 board meeting, at Duncan's request, the Board voted unanimously to close the schools.

Cite: http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?section=Article&page=133

Researchers such as the University of Illinois at Chicago have also questioned why under Duncan minority children have been directly toward military schooling. As of 2009, Chicago will have six of the 17 high school military academies in the country.

Cite: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec07/military_12-26.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.237.187.149 (talk) 17:24, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

{{editsemiprotected}}

Add Kerrie Holley, IBM Fellow as childhood friend. Arne Duncan will confirm as well as Arne's siblings and mother. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chicago312606 (talk • contribs) 17:27, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

• I think it would need a reference that has been published – see Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. —Snigbrook 19:55, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

  Yeah, I don't think that belongs in the article unless you can point to a source as Snigbrook suggests. ~ mazca ^t|c 18:40, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

  • What possible reason exists to add a childhood friend. I once shared an elevator with Tip O'Neil, but that need not be mentioned in his biography. 76.181.69.169 (talk) 18:38, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

I just saw a story on TV a few minutes ago about child abuse in the Chicago Public Schools. Reportedly, there are about 600 confirmed cases of children being physically abused by teachers in the Chicago Public Schools, but only about 20 teachers have been "separated." Obviously, if he did not do everything within his power to protect children while he was the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, he needs to be fired from his current position as Education Secretary. What did he know? 206.251.3.202 (talk) 21:07, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

What does basketball have to do with this article? None of his basketball achievements are particularly notable. It merely serves as a lead in to his acquaintance with Obama. There are literally thousands of basketball players who've gone to play semi-professional basketball in other countries (and thousands of minor league baseball players) who don't get Wiki pages extolling what great players they are. Who cares if he scored 20 points in a basketball game once and someone on the other team scored 15 points. I fear for Education in this country if a 20 point game and a pickup game with Michael Jordan are his best attributes. This article needs a re-write. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.104.103.179 (talk) 04:54, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Absolutely nothing. Just like the quote that he "sounds like he's African-American"? How do you sound "African-American"? I wasn't aware of the qualitative differences in black folks voices, but glad to know Arne's people, in a desparate bid to claim some affinity with black folk say things like that. His research, which the article fails to mention, involved "studying" students at his mother's tutoring business.

Arne Duncan's C.V. reminds me of my exagerrated old resume from High School. He has no experience teaching or doing anything vaguely relevant to the job he has, so he's embellished nonprofit, volunteer and other positions including tutoring at his mother's business one summer (according to the ed.gov bio!). He's a political flunky of Mayor Daley, John Rogers (the investment banker behind the Ariel nonprofit) and a classmate at U Chicago Lab High School (an elitist school) and his father was hooked into U Chicago as a noted researcher and since his mother went to H, he was of course a legacy there. Another rich white aristocrat gets the world on a silver platter without having to work for it and then has the audacity to carry on like he's the champion of all black people. Disgusting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.68.20.12 (talk) 19:05, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, those comments and their author are disgusting. -- 184.189.217.91 (talk) 07:31, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Needs a major rewrite. His appointment and his time as head of Chicago public schools were controversial, and there is nothing about that in the article.Haberstr (talk) 16:31, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

• Agreed, major puff piece. Just took out the sentence "Duncan has extensive experience in educational policy and management, and he was a teacher from 1990 to 1992." Not only is this unsourced, but reputable sources actually state the opposite. I'm not particularly fond of how the article is structured either, new headings and more development in the career sections much needed. Also, sourcing is terrible - several statements attributed to sources in which the information does not actually appear. CercareVerita (talk) 19:38, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Was Sec. Duncan ever a classroom teacher? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.0.179.247 (talk) 00:41, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Better question: Did he EVER work in ANY capacity for ANY public school system before becoming "CEO" of Chicago Public Schools? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.126.6.86 (talk) 23:55, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

No, Arne Duncan has never been a teacher and does not hold an educator credential. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.21.94.192 (talk) 21:59, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

is embarrassing and has no significance in 'this day and age'. I lopped off the final two names on the list. "IBM Fellow Kerrie Holley and martial artist Michelle Gordon" should not even have Wikipedia entries (Wikipedia:Notability), but that's another matter.Haberstr (talk) 20:58, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

152.9.102.200, it quite clear from her Wikipedia entry that Michelle Gordon is not notable under Wikipedia encyclopedia standards (though she seems to be a fine person). Let's talk, though, if you want to discuss the matter.Haberstr (talk) 15:41, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

EXACTLY! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.107.10.146 (talk) 16:40, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

If this is going to be a bio then it should present the views and balanced picture of the man. Obama picked him because of his ideological orientation such as views on gay and lesbian high school. He is not a mainstream American and there in the minds of most Americans is very dangerous for progressive views on education in re to re-creating history of the country and its values in text books, drugs, gays, etc. This is a shabby article. Becher-md (talk) 17:03, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

"mainstream American"? What a disgusting wretch who would write such garbage. -- 184.189.217.91 (talk) 07:33, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Without very good sources supporting its notability, we will not allow links to a petition calling for this subject to resign his office. (And even with such sources, we probably still wouldn't allow links to the petition itself.) ElKevbo (talk) 15:00, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

There's been a bit of an edit war gong on today between User:68.113.25.188 and User:ElKevbo regarding the insertion of the following into the Criticisms section:

In January 2012, an online petition began circulating demanding Duncan's removal from office and substantial changes to the Obama administration's education policy: http://dumpduncan.org.[16]

It seems sourced, although the inclusion of an external link in the article body is inappropriate. I'm bringing the issue here for these two editors (and anyone else interested) to discuss, in order to gain consensus. Yunshui 雲‍水 15:11, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

(I already started a section above this so I don't know why we need another one...)

The cited source is entirely insufficient to clear the bar for including (negative) information in a BLP. We need something much, much better than a single blog to draw attention to this petition in this article. ElKevbo (talk) 15:16, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

It's not clear that an online petition is sufficiently important to merit inclusion in the article. However, the source (LA Progressive) seems sufficiently solid to me -- it's essentially an online newspaper, not a blog. Let's leave the item about the petition here while investigating whether it's been noticed by anybody else. I've removed the advertisement for the petition, though. --Orlady (talk) 15:19, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

No. We don't allow this kind of material to remain in a BLP "while investigating whether it's been noticed by anybody else." That's a gross misunderstanding of our policy that is very clear on this issue. On that basis, I am again removing the material. If this continues, I will escalate this discussion to a more visible venue such as ANI. ElKevbo (talk) 15:22, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

(e/c) After a second reading, I'm not sure about LA Progressive as a source for this. The "article" is essentially just a link to the petition and a copy of its content; it's not substantially better than linking directly to the petition itself. I can't find any other info on the petition that isn't sourced to blogs or facebook. Yunshui 雲‍水 15:26, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

That has been my evaluation, too. I'm not necessarily opposed to including this information in the article but we'd need much better sourcing to do so. ElKevbo (talk) 15:32, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

After a bit of consideration, I have blocked the IP for edit warring over content that fails BLP. ElKevbo's reverts fall under a 3RR exemption, and he has been making a good-faith effort to engage editors in discussion about this dispute, so no block is necessary there. In order for this content to be included in the article, it needs to cite a reliable source. --Chris (talk) 16:01, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I've now semi-protected the article, as a new IP has picked up where the last one left off. --Orlady (talk) 17:19, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks so much! ElKevbo (talk) 17:30, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/arne-duncan-common-core-comment-99987.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.21.94.192 (talk) 06:36, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

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The article does not mention his role in digital promise despite him and other Obama Administration officials having a role in it. Congressn3rd316 (talk) 02:11, 16 January 2025 (UTC)