Nationalizing Chicago

A legacy of failure:

In 2007, only 17 percent of eighth graders tested at or above grade level in reading in Chicago Public Schools -- the school system administered by Arne Duncan since 2001.
President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped Duncan to become secretary of education in the upcoming administration.

(Via Ace.) Of course, all urban public schools suck, and anyone claiming to be able to perform a miracle in public schools is full of it. In 2004, I wrote an article exposing George W. Bush's "Texas miracle," the supposed magic of "standards" that was the theoretical justification for No Child Left Behind. A cruel hoax.