On the Flypaper blog, Mike Petrilli comments on Arne Duncan’s recent statements on school vouchers:
“We need to be more ambitious,” Duncan explained. “The goal shouldn’t be to save a handful of children. The goal should be to dramatically change the opportunity structure for entire neighborhoods of kids.”
Wow. On the one hand, that rhetoric is straight out of the Great Society, and in line with the Obama team’s audacious attempt to redefine what’s possible in domestic policymaking. But it’s also a clear reference to Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone, which is trying to remake an “entire neighborhood” of kids.
And on The Plank, a New Republic blog, Seyward Darby adds, “It does appear that Harlem Children’s Zone and similar pioneering programs are informing Duncan’s approach to policy.” Darby quotes from the recent Chicago magazine interview with Duncan, in which Duncan promised to undertake and fund a 20-city Harlem Children’s Zone replication project, and concludes:
That’s pretty bold (and encouraging!) talk, particularly in the face of congressional and union opposition to broadening reform efforts that have only been tested on a small scale–like the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Tags: Arne Duncan, blogs, Geoffrey Canada, HCZ, Obama, Promise Neighborhoods