Education Secretary Duncan contends that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing to happen to the New Orleans school system.

Read the entire blog and post a comment on washingtonpost.com.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sh...ne-katrina.html

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Duncan’s own Hurricane Katrina

When Education Secretary Arne Duncan said to a television reporter in an interview to air Sunday that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that happened to the New Orleans school system, I’m sure he wasn’t retroactively wishing a catastrophe to decimate the city and its school buildings.

But his statement concerns me nevertheless....

“This is a tough thing to say, but let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that ’we have to do better.

“And the progress that they’ve made in four years since the hurricane is unbelievable. They have a chance to create a phenomenal school district."...

I think Mr. Duncan has made a mistake.

He may have thought it was a metaphoric hurricane, and indeed they did need a metaphoric hurricane.

Perhaps many cities do and, if he really means that school systems should start from scratch, he should use the billions of dollars he has to dole out to districts to have them do just that.

But Katrina was a real hurricane that resulted in the loss of many hundreds of lives.

Duncan didn't just say once that Katrina was good for New Orleans schools as a throwaway line that he uttered without much thought. His thoughts on this were in paragraphs.

The education secretary is confusing metaphor with reality.

And that is worrisome in an education secretary of the United States.