Water that seed

Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Institute is quoted here saying, with respect to Arne Duncan:

“The jury is still out on his tenure in Chicago. But he did put in place a lot of important reforms that there’s reason to believe are going to bear fruit over time.”

Well, we won't ask exactly what Petrilli thinks is so important. I haven't heard anything about how Duncan did anything about delivery of classroom instruction, gang or discipline issues, or other stuff like that which seem kind of important to me.

But one interesting thing here is that big-city "reform" superintendants of Duncan's ilk habitually rely on one of two justifications for their hasty, ill-considered policies: (1) We don't have time to wait and (2) Things can't possibly get any worse. Typically, they also promise great things to come of their plans. After 7 years of unfettered control over the third largest system in the country, it seems like Dunc'd have something to show for it by now.