John B. King is Not An Improvement Over Arne Duncan

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan resigned last week as I’m sure you are all aware. John B. King, current assistant secretary of education and former commissioner of education in New York, was appointed as “Acting Secretary” (avoiding a confirmation vote for now).

King was a staunch defender of Common Core and high-stakes testing during his time in New York.  He was essentially tone deaf over concerns expressed by New York teachers and parents.  When he realized town hall meeting with parents were not going to be all rainbows and unicorns he closed them down.

King is not an improvement as a replacement. He may be even worse.

Here are some of his “greatest” hits.

Capital New York has a nice summary of that period of time.

The fall of 2013 was arguably the most difficult period of King’s three-and-a-half year tenure as education commissioner in New York, where, as the state’s first black and first Latino schools chief, he led the implementation of the Common Core standards, controversial state exams aligned to the more difficult material, and teacher performance evaluations based partially on the tests.

After the Oct. 10, 2013, assembly devolved into chaos, King canceled (and subsequently rescheduled under pressure) the rest of his planned statewide tour, accusing “special interests” of co-opting the raucous crowd.

Teachers’ unions, parent groups and some state lawmakers called for King’s resignation. The state’s powerful teachers’ union later held a no-confidence vote to make official their feelings about him. A parent-led and union-boosted testing boycott movement began under his leadership, and subsequently exploded.

Oh yay.