US Secretary of Education will send his kids to private schools
The secretary's wife and two children will be moving back home to Chicago, while he remains on the job in Washington.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan visits with young student Mario Corona, age 6, in kindergarten at McGlone Elementary School in the Montbello section of Denver, Thursday May 14, 2015.
Brennan Linsley/AP
US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will send his children to a private school in Chicago this upcoming fall, as confirmed by an . The former head of Chicago public schools served as chief from , making him the, according to his White House biography. 聽
Mr. Duncan grew up in Chicago, and , where his two children will be enrolled at in the fall. His wife, Karen, will resume teaching at the private school. Dependents of employees of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools get聽. Until now, Duncan had been sending his kids to a public school in Arlington, Virginia.聽
So how did Chicago's public schools fare under Duncan's leadership, and since his departure in early 2009?聽
From 1995 to 2005, the City of Chicago saw a in the graduation rate to 51 percent of students entering high school graduating. In 2013, the percentage had increased to . That same year, the average high school graduation rate across the United States was .
鈥淭his year鈥檚 high school graduation rate is a testament to the dedication and hard work of our students, teachers, principals, and parents who stayed focused, engaged, and energized around the importance of finishing high school for a brighter future,鈥 Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a press release following the announcement of the increase in graduation rate.
In 2014, there were 400,000 students enrolled in 600 schools in the district, making it the according to the 2014 American Schools and Universities ranking. However, the Chicago Public Schools system currently faces a $665 million budget deficit, in its聽.
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the Chicago schools chief since 2012, resigned this spring in the wake of a .
In a speech given June 26, Duncan said, 鈥淭he world is in the midst of a massive shift鈥攆rom the predictability of the Industrial Age to the uncertainty of the Networked Age. And .鈥