Teachers Federation likes the pick, and for whatever it's worth the outgoing Education Secretary gave it her blessing as well. From the sounds of it both the union and the reformers can stomach the pick - basically he's a reformer who will work with the unions rather than force the changes upon them.

Seems like a great pick because he is a consensus builder, the reformers and the teacher's union are like two sides of the same coin, maybe Duncan can help in buying something nice with that change (I am here all night folks).

CNN is now saying Ken Salazar is Obama's pick for Interior. Yikes! They're rolling out fast and furious.

I think it's a good appointment overall. Both the teachers unions and reformerss like him, it means we finally have another Chicagoan in the cabinet (and a clean one at that), and contra the previous poster he has done a decent job of dealing with a school system under very difficult circumstances. Where Duncan has failed in Chicago is in dealing with lousy principals and middle management; I actually think the CPS needs a more aggressive reformer who will deal with this entrenched deadwood that makes things very difficult for those both below and above them -- blocking reform from above, and failing to promote good teachers below them; I think Duncan has a fairly good idea of how things are SUPPOSED to work.

Another basketball player!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Duncan

From 1987 to 1991, Duncan played professional basketball in Australia with the Eastside Spectres of the NBL, and while there worked with children who were wards of the state. While in Tasmania, he meet his future wife, Karen.

I'm from Chicago, and this pick is an absolute disaster. Duncan is bad news, and there is no way for Obama to claim that this clown was the most qualified for the job.

Another Chicagoan here. I too think this pick is a disaster, the first disaster of the transition, as far as I can tell. I know Barrack and Duncan are basketball buddies and Duncan is a truly decent guy, but he has done nothing, NOTHING, to improve CPS. My partner is a teacher in CPS and has watched with a mixture of resignation and despair as the CPS system has continued to decline at a fast clip. It's true that Duncan inherited very challenging circumstances, but he still hasn't managed to do anything that's laudable. Disparities in spending per student, the segregation and unequal opportunity has not abated at all, only worsened, while teachers get bullied and blamed, unsupported principles get squeezed, and the kids get the shaft.

Although I'm not a Chicagoan, I'm not surprised to see that the consensus amongst all the Chi-towners that have posted here.

I'm a big fan of every other cabinet appointment that Barack Obama has made thus far, but I'm terribly skeptical of this pick.

Appointing someone who has never been in a classroom to be the Secretary of Education is a recipe for disaster. To me, that's like appointing someone without a law degree to Attorney General, or a med school dropout as to Surgeon General.

The Department of Education should be about creating classrooms and curricula that are conducive to student learning. I find a hard time believing that the most qualified person to lead the Dept. of Ed. is someone who has never been charged with a classroom of his or her own.

Those are my two cents.