Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan to head the Department of Education.

Obama made the announcement Tuesday morning at Dodge Renaissance Academy on the city's West Side.

"The path to jobs and growth begins right here in America's schools." Obama said. "If we want to out-compete the world tomorrow, we need to out-educate the world today"

Obama, who frequently plays basketball with Duncan,  will be looking to the veteran CEO of the Chicago public schools to implement the reform agenda the president-elect campaigned on, including performance-based pay for teachers – something unions tend to dislike – and letting 1,000 flowers bloom, so to speak, when it comes to new types of taxpayer-supported schools.

"When it comes to school reform, Arne is the most hands on," Obama said.  "It's a cause in his life."

"When faced with tough decision, Arne doesn't blink."

Duncan called education reform the "civil rights issue of our generation.''

He is known in education circles nationally as an innovative reformer. In Chicago, he's tried to improve a system that one former education secretary called the worst schools in America.

"I am eager to apply the lessons we have learned here [in Chicago] to other school districts in the nation,'' Duncan said.

Duncan comes from a family of teachers.

"I grew up, along with my sister and brother, as part of my mother's inner-city tutoring center," Duncan said. "Her courage has been my inspiration."

"When they were 7, they helped the 3-year-olds growing up at the center," his mother, Sue Duncan, said.

Sue Duncan's education philosophy leaves lots of time for sports, one reason her son became a top-notch basketball player.

Obama joked, "I did not choose Arne because he's one of the best basketball players I know. Although I will say I think we are puttin' together the best basketball playin' cabinet in American history."

Now that Duncan will be America's chief education officer, his mother told CBS 2 where she hopes he will focus his efforts.

"The critical areas are the first five years in a child's life. If you can get the child comfortable, literate, spend time with 'em, always have sports around," Sue Duncan said.

It is noteworthy that the announcement Tuesday was made at Dodge charter school. One of Duncan's first reform overhauls, the school was closed down and reopened with virtually an entirely new staff of teachers. Among students there in 2002, 23 percent were reading at grade level. By 2008, that number has jumped to 70 percent. In 2002, 25 percent were at grade level in math; by 2008, 80 percent were.

"Arne Duncan has, obviously, a good national reputation," school reformer Linda Lenz said. "Chicago for a long time has been seen as the place to try new and exciting things."

Despite such successes, local education watchdogs wish Duncan had done more, especially in reforming what some call "the blob" – the education bureaucracy.

"He's brought in some good people… better people than people in the past, and maybe has made some progress, but it's still a clumsy bureaucracy," Lenz said. "And he's not been very good in dealing with communities."

Mayor Richard M. Daley, asked in October about the possibility of losing Duncan to Obama's cabinet, said he didn't want to lose Duncan – or anyone else. Now, Daley will have to find a new person to head the Chicago public schools.

But, Daley also won't be able to complain anymore that Washington's not listening and doesn't seem to understand big-city school systems. 

Lenz said Obama and President George W. Bush share some of the school reform agenda positions, including several that offend teachers unions, such as pay raises based on performance.

Based on what she has seen of Duncan and Obama over the years, Lenz predicts that they may make some progress by pushing more money into education.

CBS 2's Mike Flannery and Mike Parker contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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