EdSec: Duncan's Questionable Comments On Chicago

Finishing up his Great Lakes bus tour in Chicago today, Arne Duncan has weighed into the issue of whether Chicago's school day should be longer with typical abandon and pleasant obliviousness:  

Duncan: CPS deserves ‘a badge of shame’ for short school day  Sun Times: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday that Chicago Public Schools deserve the “badge of shame’’ for having such a short school day, and he wished he could have lengthened it while he was Schools CEO here.

Duncan backs longer Chicago school day Tribune: Count U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan among the biggest cheerleaders for lengthening the school day in Chicago. 

Duncan says he wished he could have lengthened it while he was in charge (2001-2009), but didn't really make that much of an effort.  Then, it was preferable to have labor peace and so the day stayed short and the raises kept coming.  Now, the school day and the teachers unions are the lightning rod for a tremendous amount of criticism. No doubt, the school day should be longer.  But Duncan's statements on the matter do raise issues of hypocrisy.  The claim that the city couldn't afford it seems pretty ludicrous, given the boom times and the raises that were being given out.  Duncan should admit that he didn't try hard enough, or, perhaps preferably, refrain from this kind of sanctimony.