Kaitlin Welborn | Reforms we can believe in

While most people were paying attention to our new President, last week another tall, reform-minded public servant/basketball player moved from Chicago to Washington. On Jan. 21, Arne Duncan, the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools since 2001, became the Secretary of Education.

The new role can't seem much of a reach for Duncan; he ran the third-largest school district in the country, making him familiar with the plights of urban education.

Duncan isn't without critics, however. For one, he was never a classroom teacher. It's easy to question whether he can turn theory into pragmatic solutions for students.

Additionally, opponents point to Chicago's school system's poor state ranking - 778 out of 842, according to schooldigger.com - as proof that Duncan will be unable to fix our nation's educational problems. Not even some of the radical, and at times controversial, reforms that Duncan has put into place (including paying students up to $4,000 a year for good grades) have saved the district.

Despite these numbers, Duncan has made substantial reforms, including opening 53 new schools and increasing the graduation rate by 6 percent.

Duncan's supporters range from teacher's unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, to administrators, such as Philadelphia's own superintendent, Arlene Ackerman. Through a spokesman, Ackerman said she is "looking forward to working with him" because "he understands the difficulties that urban schools in particular face in raising achievement for diverse populations."

Because Duncan is not a polarizing figure, he has the opportunity to achieve President Obama's goal of making education less of a political game. The organization Democrats for Education Reform wrote in a policy paper that Duncan "has credibility with various factions in the education-policy debate and would allow President Obama to avoid publicly choosing sides in that debate." Duncan would thus be free from political chains to make the best policy decisions.

So what does Duncan's appointment mean for the School District of Philadelphia? Ideally, only good things. Having an advocate for urban education reform at the federal level should help out struggling urban school districts like ours. The proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will allocate an additional $564,453,000 to Pennsylvania schools' construction.

Because Duncan realizes the plight of the urban school district, he should ideally allocate funding toward Philadelphia's aging educational infrastructure (On average, Philadelphia school buildings were built around Eisenhower's inauguration.). Philadelphia's schools should also gain from the anticipated changes that Duncan will make to No Child Left Behind, which is due for reauthorization early this year. In Chicago, Duncan fought for increased funding for his district, so most likely he will ask to increase the federal funding given to local districts to institute federal policies.

Urban districts will certainly benefit from the expected increased flexibility within NCLB that Duncan will provide. Elliot Weinbaum, a senior researcher for the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, said, "Dr. Ackerman may have increased flexibility to exercise her goals and interests as well as her leadership in the district, provided she can provide data and evidence for her argument."

However, the secretary of education doesn't necessarily directly influence local school districts that get the majority of their funding from the state- - up to 60 percent in Philadelphia's case. Weinbaum believes that Duncan's largest role is that of the "bully pulpit"; that is, rhetoric over policy. Because the Secretary of Education receives so much more attention than the regular school-board president, he or she has the power to "impact the way that people think and talk about education generally" and to put pressure on their local leaders to make reforms.

So, Secretary Duncan, wield this power realistically. Rather than worrying about No Child Left Behind, focus on grassroots education movements that can truly make a difference. Education's problems are best fixed on a local, not a federal, level.

Take a note from the boss - President Obama. We know that schools in cities like Philadelphia are in bad shape. Now we just need someone to lead us. That would be change we could believe in.

Kaitlin Welborn is a College senior from Tampa, Fla. Not Your Mother's Daughter appears on alternating Wednesdays. Her email address is welborn@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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