This decade UW-Madison has taken a lot of flak from students, alumni and other frequently frustrated persons for its track record with commencement speakers. And it's not without reason, as the recent list of speakers hasn't really had much of a ""wow"" factor.
Last year, the bane of baseball fans, Bud Selig, spoke at spring commencement. The year before it was state Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, who despite being a perfectly lovely woman isn't exactly a sexy name. Prior to her it was André De Shields, whom I had to look up to discover is an accomplished dancer and theater actor. As a music critic, I was ashamed. But the average lay student could be forgiven for not recognizing De Shields' resume.
So it's understandable that much rejoicing greeted the announcement of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as this year's commencement speaker––or at least the commencement speaker for the School of Education. We got a cabinet member! And not just any cabinet member, we got the cabinet member who deals with education, which is supposedly why most of us are here.
But I wasn't celebrating with the rest of the secretary of education groupies. Granted, I still admire that UW-Madison had enough pull to draw Duncan into flyover country for a day and get him to speak to the intrepid education majors. As far as prestige goes, he is clearly a step up from Abrahamson and the douchebag who tried to contract the Minnesota Twins. But based on Duncan's job performance so far, it's hard for me to entirely get behind his speaking engagement.
Ever since his confirmation, Duncan and President Barack Obama have focused most of their Department of Education efforts on Race to the Top, an initiative that provides federal funds to states that have shown a commitment to improving education. In theory, it sounds like a beneficial idea. It rewards those who are making an effort to improve, and that should encourage schools all across the country to improve, right?
However, as occurred with President George W. Bush's loathsome No Child Left Behind, good intentions from the federal government often don't result in benefits for America's students. So far when put into practice, Race to the Top has done little to actually promote improved educational methods. Instead, Race to the Top echoes No Child Left Behind, with most school districts doing everything except better educating their students to get ahead.
What most of Race to the Top has resulted in is change simply for the sake of change. I get that Obama asked for change constantly during his campaign, but I think he meant for there to be a reason behind it. Instead, most states have completely revamped their school districts not in a productive way, but using methods that are backed up with little to no evidence that they will work. For an example, just look 80 miles to the east where everything short of assassination was attempted to remove power from Milwaukee Public Schools' board and give more power to the mayor. Theoretically, this would make it easier and more efficient to institute reforms and streamline funding. Realistically, it likely won't change a thing. It doesn't get rid of bad teachers. It doesn't make Milwaukee Public Schools a safer environment for learning. And it likely wouldn't have raised the almighty test scores of students by a single point. The idea was just change for change's sake.
Politicians across the country enacted numerous proposals like the MPS endeavor, with districts reshuffling and reorganizing just to make it look like they were trying to improve. And therein lies the biggest problem with Race to the Top: It rewards states at the least opportune time possible. It doesn't wait for the results to come in on these reforms that schools have instituted. Nor does it send money to the school districts that need it most before they institute these changes, so they might actually have the resources to make worthwhile reforms. No, Race to the Top says do something with what little you have, and regardless of how well it works, we'll give you points for effort.
What would be better is if Duncan actually had some faith in school districts. Poor districts like Milwaukee, other urban districts and especially poor rural districts just do not have enough disposable funds to provide students with the educational materials they need, be it textbooks, smaller class sizes or after-school programs. If Race to the Top funds were actually distributed to needy districts instead of entire states, some of the money might actually do some good. Instead, Duncan has just thrown money haphazardly instead of in targeted, beneficial fashion.
While I still have a year at UW ahead of me, I plan on checking out Duncan's speech as soon as it's online. But I don't expect to be as moved by his words of wisdom as my graduating peers. Instead, I'll be hoping UW-Madison can build on this speech next year––hopefully with somebody who isn't as ineffective an educational leader as Arne Duncan.
Todd Stevens is a junior majoring in history and psychology. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
