Obama's Secretary of Education pick Arne Duncan says "he gave my sister and I the opportunity to start a great school on the South Side of Chicago."

And what do the kids learn at this great school? How to make the kind of grammatical errors that only people who are trying to speak well make?

(Via SondraK.)

ADDED: The Stump likes Duncan:

He's pushed for aggressive reforms [in the Chicago system] that have at times placed him at odds with the city's education establishment. But he's also managed to appeal to that establishment, averting teachers' strikes like those that plagued the city in previous decades....

He's been a leader in the education reform movement, which supports tough policies on teacher accountability, merit pay, high-stakes testing, and fixing failing schools. And yet, he's also been keenly diplomatic with traditional forces like teachers' unions...

Other critics say that Duncan's selection only solidifies that Obama has yet to come down on either side of the debate between reformers and the education establishment.

So he solidifies gelatinousness? Great!

"[Duncan] is seen as a blank slate in terms of ideology or vision," Elizabeth Green at the New York blog Gotham Schools wrote last night. "Indeed, he hasn't done much publicly to indicate where he stands in the Democratic Party's education wars."

Isn't that precisely what you need to be Obama-ready?

Obama [said]: "He's not beholden to any one ideology--and he doesn't hesitate for one minute to do what needs to be done."

So we're getting the moderate, pragmatist Obama I was hoping for. Again, great.