Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on Oct. 2 that he intends to step down from his position by the end of the year, when he will be replaced by John B. King Jr., currently the deputy secretary of education and New York State’s former education commissioner.

“He’s done more to bring our educational system, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the 21st century than anyone else,” President Barack Obama said in praise of Duncan. “America will be better off for what he has done.”

Duncan fought during his tenure to expand charter schools, increase the weight placed on student test scores in teacher evaluations and implement the Common Core Learning Standards, policies that have earned him increasing criticism from both the right and left and led Congress, in pending legislation, to move to strip the power of the secretary of education, and the National Education Association to call for his resignation.

The announcement of King as his successor outraged parents as well as teachers, who see him as far too similar to the man he will replace. The UFT often tangled with King during his tenure in New York.

“King’s obsession with high-stakes testing took education in the wrong direction, and that error was compounded by the state’s disastrous rollout of the Common Core,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said.

The Washington Post, Oct. 2
Politico, Oct. 2