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U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan Speaks at Annual Conference of American Council on EducationFebruary 10, 2009—The American Council on Education (ACE) is the umbrella national association to which many of the nation's college and university presidents belong. At the ACE national conference, held on February 9 in Washington, DC, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was a featured speaker. Secretary Duncan called this a time to think differently, act boldly, and "give each child the very best education possible." He called advancing the education of all students a moral and economic imperative, a civil rights issue. He pointed to the "Barack effect." Both President and Mrs. Obama, he said, can serve as role models of hard work and education, to inspire others, including minority students, and to make education "cool" and "exciting." Mr. Duncan discussed the economic stimulus legislation pending before the Congress. He noted that in this legislation the Pell Grant shortfall will be closed and the individual Pell Grant award will be raised by $500 per student. Yet, according to the Senate economic stimulus version, the State Stabilization Fund for education would be cut by 50%, a cut of $40 billion below the $79 billion contained in the House version. Secretary Duncan vowed to push for more education funding in the economic stimulus conference bill than the Senate version contains. He also pointed to the fact that the Senate dropped the $16 billion in school modernization facilities grants funding from its bill. The Secretary mentioned a study by the University of Washington that is due to be released that says that there will be $80 billion in State cuts over the next two years, which could result in the loss of 660,000 jobs in education. He called the stimulus package "good economic policy." The economic stimulus would provide twice the annual budget for U.S. Department of Education programs for the next two years. The new Education Secretary articulated a need to prepare U.S. K-12 students to meet college and career-ready standards, so that Americans can keep up with the pace of change and enjoy good, well paying jobs. He emphasized the importance of college students graduating, and graduating on time, from higher education institutions. He expressed lack of support for each State having different high school graduation standards as they do now, and urged eliminating the "extreme variation in standards across the United States." Mr. Duncan also called for an end to the "culture of blame" in education, where colleges blame high schools, secondary schools blame "grade schools," and they blame parents for underachievement. He called for the U.S. Department of Education to be the "engine of innovation," to support reform, and to engage in a partnership with the education community. He enumerated the following challenges in higher education:
Regarding all of education, Mr. Duncan called for thinking of it as one system, which begins at the birth of a child, and a new era of responsibility. For K-12 education, Secretary Duncan urged:
More information Duncan Addresses ACE Annual Meeting (downloadable audio file) | |||||
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