At a meeting last Friday in Wilmington, DE, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for longer school days.
Why?
I'm not necessarily saying teachers have to work twelve hours a day, but what do we do with nonprofits and the Boys and Girls Clubs and the YMCAs that come into the schools and provide a, y'know, a whole set of extracurricular activities that so many of our children need?Words, y'know, fail me.
Almost.
This from by a guy who, when he was running the Chicago Public Schools, personally facilitated a $174,000 rip-off by the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a tainted nonprofit that's reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General and by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) here in Atlanta.
As Sidebar readers know, Duncan's been hiding from questions about that money and his relationship to SALF.
I don't know if he's in denial or out to lunch, but it won't matter if this catches up to him.
Will it?
Well, since November 2006, the SALF mess has been the subject of dozens of broadcast and print exposes and continues to generate fresh ink.
Also, my congressman, Rob Woodall (R-GA, 7th District), and Illinois state senator Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) are asking questions about what happened to millions of US and state tax dollars awarded to SALF, an organization that Duncan was close to and promoted for at least four years.
F'rinstance, here's Duncan appearing as a cartoon pitchman enthusiastically hyping SALF:
In my opinion, as soon as a political opponent or a reporter asks him about the $174,000 payday he arranged for SALF, Duncan won't be quite as enthusiastic about extracurricular school programs run by nonprofits.