Arne Duncan, John Legend, DC Schools Chief Promote Teachers Of The Future

By A.J. Swartwood

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Grammy Award winning recording artist John Legend, and Interim Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Kaya Henderson hosted a TEACH town hall meeting at Howard University Wednesday afternoon to discuss the future of education and the next generation of teachers. 

 Despite the current economic difficulties facing the our nation, Duncan believes that it is education that we rescue the United States from its financial woes.

 “We have a tough economy now… Im convinced we have to educate our our way to a better economy. That’s the only way we’re going to get there,” said Secretary Duncan who is promoting the new TEACH program to motivate students across the nation to choose education as their career. 

 Legend, for his part, has become more and more active in his campaign to end inequalities in education for American students.

 ” Im doing everything I can to end education inequality in our country,” said the songwriter who drew a filled auditorium to the meeting. In addition to his work with the Department of Education, Legend started the “Show Me” campaign,  an organization that he founded, which seeks to break the poverty cycle, and fights for “equal access to quality education in the United States.” 

 The focus of meeting turned to the teachers themselves when Kaya Henderson, a self-proclaimed project housing success story, declared her commitment as the interim Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools to do whatever was necessary to bring excellence to D.C. schools.

 “We need teachers who know what they are doing, we need teachers who inspire us…teachers who are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure we are engaged and prepared,” said Henderson, who replaced Michelle Rhee, the effective, but often divisive former Chancellor.

Henderson, who served under Rhee as deputy chancellor, said she promised her to give all she had to change the status quo and attract the best teachers to the notoriously troubled D.C. Public schools. “My commitment to them was, if we have to die doing it, we will create a system where the highest perfoming teachers want to come.”

Former labor secretary challenges Bush on black families

"The story of the Bush Administration for the past eight years really has been a story of constant economic deterioration in the African-American community,’ said
Former Clinton Labor Secretary Alexis Herman during an Obama campaign telephone conference on the state of economy for African-American Families.
Herman, along with Howard University Economics Department Chair Dr. William Spriggs, expressed dismay with last Friday's unemployment report and described the response an Obama presidency would bring.
"It’s not just about the unemployment rate, the fact of the matter is ,when we look at the job loss matter, we have lost good jobs in our community,’ said Herman”, citing a 10.6 percent unemployment rate and loss of five hundred thousand jobs.
Herman explained that Senator Obama would combat this by raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, end tax breaks to companies that outsource, and create economic incentives for employers who retain domestic jobs.
Spriggs stressed that although the teleconference was focusing on black families, all communities are at risk.
"It is the whole ship that is sinking because we have pursued these policies, believing that the economy can grow from the top down. We won the experiment. We had eight years of it, nothing trickled down."
Spriggs went on to criticize McCain's economic plan, stating that the tax cuts amongst those in the top one percent of the income distribution will cost taxpayers over a trillion dollars within the next 40 years. Conversely, Spriggs said Obama's tax cuts to American families that make under $250,000 will aid the economy by redirecting more resources towards afflicted communities.