"This country can't afford to replace 'the fierce urgency of now' with the soft bigotry of...

it's optional." Arne Duncan in January 2015.

It seems he quoted Martin Luther King and an altered version of George Bush's "bigotry of low expectations."

Actually he was talking about testing. It's a garbled message.

Arne Duncan Wants To Drop 'No Child Left Behind' — But Keep Its Tests

Duncan called No Child Left Behind "tired" and "prescriptive." Nevertheless, he declared that the law's central requirement should stand: annual, mandated statewide assessments from third grade through eighth, plus one test in high school.

Some Republicans in Congress have been discussing the idea of reducing or eliminating those testing requirements.

In his speech, Duncan invoked famous phrases used by both President Obama and former President George W. Bush, the latter of whom introduced No Child Left Behind more than 13 years ago.

Actually "the fierce urgency of now" was used by Martin Luther King in 1963

At the 1963 March on Washington and elsewhere, Martin Luther King, Jr spoke of “the fierce urgency of now,” the need for immediate, “vigorous and positive action” on civil rights. Princeton historian Julian Zelizer has borrowed King’s words for the title of his new book to re-examine the Lyndon Johnson presidency, the power of Congress, and the birth, and fate, of the Great Society.

There was a book by that name as well.

In The Fierce Urgency of Now, Zelizer recounts the astonishing achievements of a brief three-year window, 1963-1966: the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, Medicare and Medicaid, the War on Poverty, national investments in education and infrastructure, and a series of groundbreaking environmental and consumer protection laws. Challenging what has become, a half century later, received wisdom about the Great Society, Zelizer shifts the lens from Johnson to the Congress to explode what he calls two “myths”: that much of the country and the federal government had become, ineluctably, liberal, and that LBJ’s famous “Treatment” – the force of his personality – willed legislation into being.

He is using quotes that did not even refer that much to education and its reform. Someone is feeding him confusing things to say.

Again, this is what Arne said:

"This country can't afford to replace 'the fierce urgency of now' with the soft bigotry of, 'It's optional,' " he said.

His solution? Cut down on the testing, but keep No Child Left Behind which now demands EVERY student pass the standardized testing.

More solution? Spend more money. Give more to the huge testing companies to make better tests.

He said that the federal government will request funding to improve the quality of tests, beyond the $360 million already spent on creating exams aligned with the Common Core learning standards. At the same time, he wants student test scores to be included in teacher evaluations.