WASHINGTON — When he led Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan kept a list of all the big shots who asked for help in getting certain children into the city’s best public schools.
A spokesman for Duncan, who is now U.S. education secretary, said Wednesday that Duncan used the list not to dole out rewards to politicians and other insiders but to shield principals from political interference.
The spokesman, Peter Cunningham, said Duncan did not intervene in admissions decisions at selective schools during his tenure from 2001 to 2009 as chief executive of the nation’s third-largest school system. “We would just simply forward the requests (to principals), and say, ‘Look, this is your decision,’ ” Cunningham said. “We were very explicit about that.”
The list, long kept under wraps, was disclosed this week by the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper reported there was no evidence that principals were forced to admit unqualified students. The Washington Post
