Below is a portion of the transcript from a National Press Club event last week featuring Secretary of Ed, Arne Duncan.
If I am reading Duncan right, the problem with vouchers is that they only serve 1 to 2 percent of the population. So, the obvious solution he endorses must be universal vouchers. Right?
MODERATOR: OK. What is your position on a potential national education voucher program?
DUNCAN: I’ve been very, very clear that I don’t think vouchers work. They’re not the answer. Let me explain why.
Vouchers usually serve 1 to 2 percent of the children in a community. And I think we as the federal government, we as local governments, or we as school districts, we have to be more ambitious than that. That’s an absolutely worthy or noble goal. If a nonprofit or philanthropy wants to provide scholarship money to children, that’s a great, great use of the resources.
But I don’t want to save 1 or 2 percent of children and let 98, 99 percent drown. We have to be much more ambitious than that. We have to expect more.
And this is why I would argue rather than taking one of these struggling schools, these thousands (inaudible) — rather than taking three kids out of there and putting them in a better school and feeling good and sleeping well at night, I want to turn that school around now and do that for those 400, 500, 800, 1,200 kids in that school and give every child in that school and that community something better, and do it with a real sense of urgency.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Good luck Arne on trying to “turn schools around.” THAT’S THE PROBLEM–THEY DON’T WANT TO TURN AROUND. They like things just the way they are, thank you, and so do the teacher unions that run them. But then, you knew that didn’t you.
rather than taking three kids out of there and putting them in a better school and feeling good and sleeping well at night, I want to turn that school around now
The false dichotomy rears its head once again. “Rather than give food stamps to poor people, I’d like to establish a system of free grocery stores nationwide (never mind that I plan to end the food stamp program long before my ideal of free grocery stores is anywhere near a reality).”
Duncan’s just shying away from displaying support for the educational bogeyman of vouchers.
The NEA and a significant part of the Democratic party have decided vouchers are the worst thing since polio so Duncan has to answer the question with some rhetorical cotton candy to avoid a valueless controversy.
Fact of the matter is, Duncan, and by extension Obama, obviously like the idea of vouchers as evidenced by the grandfathering of the current D.C. voucher students rather then the stake through the program’s heart that was originally attempted.
From the Denver Post:
“Colorado charter schools continue to grow — adding schools, students and more diversity, according to a study released Tuesday by the Colorado Department of Education.
“It’s fascinating to see as time goes on, statistics and laws of nature take over and charters end up looking like everyone else,” said Jim Griffin, president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools.”
As I’ve noted before, in Colorado, open enrollment and the growth of charters is the preferred model. This is preferable to a general statewide voucher system which is not needed or desired because for at least three quarters of families, the neighborhood school is preferable, and people move into neighborhoods for the schools. Thus, a voucher system isn’t necessary, nor in demand, though I would concede that some voucher advocates want the option of private schools, and that concern should be addressed.
It’s also important to remember there is regular opposition from the communities of struggling schools when districts attempt to close them. Thus, the support for the neighborhood model is still high. I applaud the growth of charter schools as well, and I will continue to support the system of choice that exists in Colorado.