Arne Duncan (meet the new boss…) suggests that states had better not get in the way of charter schools, as if the hold up with charter schools is occurring at the state level.

It’s as if he didn’t spend time running Chicago, squealing at every moment about the lack of state support. One of the few things that state legislatures WILL support is charter schools: doing so sticks it to teacher unions, school district bureaucracies, and allows many business types an entry into the education trough. The hold up for charter schools in Philadelphia doesn’t come from the state but from the SDP, who has control over how many charters they will grant.

There’s a Paul Krugman editorial today detailing some of the ways that the Obama administration has alienated the left; I think more could be made about the decision to go with Duncan as opposed to someone like Linda Darling-Hammond and the betrayal that many educators feel about Duncan’s work so far.