After eight years of No Child Left Behind, which emphasized testing scores as indicators of student progress, the naming of Arne Duncan as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of education is being hailed as an opportunity to undo and reform the education legacy of the Bush administration. Duncan's reputation as a progressive educator rests in part on his support for the proposed and now-postponed Pride School campus of the North Lawndale Social Justice School, which would have focused on the needs of LGBTA youth.

    Despite glowing accolades in the national press, Duncan's record is seen quite differently by progressive LGBTA educators and school advocates in Chicago and elsewhere. Henry Giroux, a renowned scholar of pedagogy, recently co-authored (with Kenneth Saltman) an article entitled "Obama's Betrayal of Public Education? Arne Duncan and the Corporate Model of Schooling" on Truthout.org. The piece is especially critical of Duncan's Renaissance 2010 program. Under this program, according to school-reform publication Catalyst, "The idea is to close low-performing schools and replace them with smaller, entrepreneurial schools, many of them free from union contracts and some state regulations." Catalyst reported that "only 2 percent [of students] were enrolled the next fall in new Renaissance schools. Nearly half of the displaced students landed at schools that were on academic probation."

    Giroux and Saltman pointed out the flaws in privatizing public school education on a corporate model where "testing [is] used as a ploy to de-skill teachers by reducing them to mere technicians, [and] students [are] similarly reduced to customers in the marketplace rather than as engaged, critical learners and [where] always underfunded public schools fail so that they can eventually be privatized."

    Erica Meiners is an associate professor of education and women's studies at Northeastern Illinois University. She is also a coordinator at St. Leonard's High School, an Albany Park high school for the formerly incarcerated. Talking with Windy City Times, Meiners saw Arne Duncan within the context of privatization and militarization; she pointed out that Chicago is the most militarized school district in the country, with several of its institutions - like Senn High on the North Side - partly or entirely given over to military academies. Regarding the Pride campus, Meiners said, "I'm torn because I do spend time in schools and I see the persistent heteronormativity in schools, and the violence that compulsory heteronormativity does to all youth, but I also see the violence white supremacy does, and the violence of misogyny." She said that she would rather see a comprehensive structural push from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to institute gay-straight alliances (GSAs) at all schools, "along with workshops for teachers not just on LGBTQ issues, but working with English-language learners, with workshops on undoing racism."

    Meiners was concerned about the militarization adding to homophobia because "typically, what we know of military academies is that misogyny and anti-gay hazing are significant. Where's the push from CPS to address queer issues at these schools? In the new all-boy school in Englewood? What about LGBTQ students in the military schools?" Brian Roa, a faculty sponsor of the Senn High School GSA, said that one of the students at Senn Military Academy (which is a wing of the high school) was a trans youth who preferred to wear the uniform of the female students but was not allowed to do so.

    According to Therese Quinn, associate professor of art education at the School of the Art Institute, the teachers hired at the new charter or contract schools created under Renaissance 2010 generally cannot join the Chicago Teacher's Union; are on year-to-year contracts; and are often underprepared - which has a detrimental effect on both faculty and students who are LGBTQ-identified or gender-nonconforming: "Exploited people are not the best people to be teachers. They can't stand up for the kids [or themselves] because they have to look out for their jobs."

    Gender JUST (Justice United for Societal Transformation) describes itself as an organizing project concerned with developing a multidimensional LGBTQ agenda based on principles of economic justice. Members attended the meeting where the postponement of the Pride Campus was announced. Sam Finkelstein, a spokesperson for the group, said that the organization had come to support the community, but "we are not supportive of anything that's part of a plan to privatize education. So if [it had eventually come up for a vote] we would have said: if this is going to be part of the Renaissance 2010 plan, we cannot support this. Even though it might be good for LGBT youth, it would be overall destructive in terms of privatizing education. There needs to be a larger systemic solution to the issue of bullying in high schools." Finkelstein was also critical of the process through which the Pride Campus was introduced, citing a lack of transparency as well as a lack of inclusiveness in the design team, pointing out that there were no trans people on it.

    Michael Vaughn, Duncan's spokesperson, responded to questions about privatization and militarization. With regard to the former, he told Windy City Times, "Our priority is to give our students great options, especially in neighborhoods that have been traditionally underserved. We're willing to listen to anybody who comes to us with great ideas of great new options for families." He took issue with the notion that CPS was being "militarized," saying that such schools were "military academies in structure but they're set up as college prep in curriculum." With regard to homophobia in such schools, Vaughn was not aware of incidents like the one described by Roa.

    Some are optimistic about Duncan's ascendancy. James Madigan, the interim executive director at Equality Illinois, said that it's "refreshing to know that someone who's receptive to the idea of LGBT students is going to take on a national role." Madigan hoped that Duncan will enable federal resources to "to try to influence schools to make them more tolerant and inclusive."

    That hope was echoed by Renae Ogletree, an out lesbian and director of student development at Chicago Public Schools. Ogletree - who was on the proposed LGBTA school's design team - praised Duncan's willingness to consider the needs of LGBT students but sees the issues extending beyond him: "The problem is with the whole notion of systemic change. What will this administration put in place that strengthens anti-bullying and anti-harassment measures, and that ensures that people are respectful of gender diversity, ensures that LGBT youth get their medical and social needs considered? Is that an agenda that Arne Duncan will take with him - to ensure that all LGBT youth can access those resources?"

    For now, progressive LGBTQ educators and advocates are skeptical. Erica Meiners wondered, "If we consider the work he's done in Chicago as an indication of what he plans to do nationally, can we expect the militarization of public schooling in every urban school district?"