Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s wife has moved to Chicago so the couple’s two daughters can attend the University of Chicago Lab School, arguably the most elite private school in Chicago — and certainly among the most expensive.
Duncan has led the Department of Education since the outset of President Barack Obama’s administration. He will shuttle between Washington and Chicago for the remainder of Obama’s second term, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
The former chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools has been a forceful cheerleader for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a set of K-12 math and language arts curriculum benchmarks and high-stakes standardized tests now being used in public schools in most states. (RELATED: Arne Duncan Blames ‘White Suburban Moms’ For Common Core Pushback)
Duncan’s family moved into a home in an affluent area in northern Virginia when he became education secretary in 2009. His children attended public schools there in the intervening years. However, Virginia is not a Common Core state.
With the move back to Chicago and enrollment at the fancypants Lab School, Duncan’s children will be even further removed from the national standards.
High school tuition at the Lab School is $30,618 annually.
Duncan’s wife, Karen, once worked at the prestigious school and will return to a job there.
The progressive Democrat attended Chicago Lab as a youngster himself before matriculating at Harvard University.
Duncan, who has bragged that he seeks employment policy guidance from Chicago street gang leaders, is not the only powerful Democrat who preaches the benefits of Common Core for America’s kids but then doesn’t actually allow his own kids to take part.
Obama, a strong Common Core supporter, sends his own teenage daughters to Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. Tuition per student at the exclusive private school is $37,750 per year. The school boasts that this amount “includes a hot lunch.” (RELATED: The School Lunches Malia And Sasha Eat Vs. The Crap Michelle Obama Has Foisted On America)
Similarly billionaire software tycoon Bill Gates has poured millions of dollars into efforts to develop and promote Common Core. However, Gates and his wife, Melinda, have chosen to send their three children — Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe — to Lakeside School, a posh prep school in Seattle where annual tuition runs $29,800. (RELATED: Bill Gates Wants To Foist Common Core On Your Kids BUT NOT HIS)
In a 2005 speech at tony Lakeside, Gates fondly remembered his time and his teachers at Lakeside.
“Teachers like Ann Stephens. I was in her English class, and I read every book in there twice. But I sat in the back of the room and never raised my hand,” Gates reminisced.
“I never would have come to enjoy literature as much as I do if she hadn’t pushed me.”
The Common Core standards Gates has funded heavily mandate a nonfiction-heavy reading regime that devalues literature tremendously. Specifically, under Common Core, nonfiction books must constitute at least 70 per cent of the texts read by high school students. (RELATED: Under Common Core, Classic Literature To Be Dropped In Favor Of ‘Informational Texts’)
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