The Ugly Charter School Scandal Arne Duncan is Leaving Behind

But we always knew he was bad news, right?

http://ourfuture.org/20151008/the-ugly-charter-school-scandal-arne-duncan-is-leaving-behind?utm_source=progressive_breakfast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pbreak

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"Arne Duncan’s surprise announcement to leave his post as secretary of education in December is making headlines and driving lots of commentary, but an important story lost in the media clutter happened three days before he gave notice.

On that day, Duncan rattled the education policy world with news of a controversial grant of $249 million ($157 million the first year) to the charter school industry. This announcement was controversial because, as The Washington Post reports, an audit by his department’s own inspector general found “that the agency has done a poor job of overseeing federal dollars sent to charter schools.”

Post reporter Lynsey Layton notes, “The agency’s inspector general issued a scathing report in 2012 that found deficiencies in how the department handled federal grants to charter schools between 2008 and 2011” – in other words, during Duncan’s watch."

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