Another Arne Duncan Homie from CCSSO Comes to Arne's Defense

Here in B-lo it's not uncommon to get out of your car in a snowstorm and get behind a fellow traveller's rig to help shove the thing free of its ruts. As Arne Duncan's wheels continue to spin into the pavement I've observed there's been no blizzard of ed reformers throwing themselves into the fray to help him escape the ruts he's dug with his gig dumb flapping mouth. Ahh but chivalry is not dead among the Brahmin of ed reform. One very likely suspect has come to Arne's defense in the prototypical ed reformer form of CCSSO Executive Director Chris Minnich. Click here for a snapshot of some of this crew's other collected misfits. Young Minnich, another ed reforming wunderkind at 33 has never set foot in a classroom, never taught one lesson and has ZERO background in Education yet he sits in charge of an educational bureaucracy that aims to cram Common Core down the throats of milllions or American kids, teachers, administrators and parents. Oh did I mention he is a former Pearson employee ?  Here's what the brilliant Chris Minnich had to say to clarify Arne's insulting comments for those of us too dumb to know when we're being insulted : 

Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, was interviewing Duncan at Friday’s event and said that Duncan’s larger point vanished amid the outcry. “He was actually saying that these standards are harder than what many states had in the past and fewer kids are going to be passing,” Minnich said. 

Ohhhh, thanks Chris, so That's what he was saying. He was just passing on some data to us all. Damn Red, some of us here in places like Buffaltucky are so goddamned thick we thought it sounded like  Arne was taking a snide cheapshot at white suburbanite moms who actually give a fuck about where they send their kids to school. Well thanks for clearing that up, we all feel better now and Arne can go back to practicing not saying outrageous good old boy backroom snark when he's too dumb to know other people are in the room listening. 

Duncan Defender, Ed Reform Darling and Former Pearson Employee and Current CCSSO Grand Poobah Chris Minnich, 33

Here's a little of his dazzling bio :

Chris Minnich assumed his role as Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in December, 2012. Chris has worked at CCSSO since 2008, when he was hired to direct the Council's standards program-the work that would later become the Common Core State Standards (Common Core). In 2009 he assumed the role of Strategic Initiative Director of Standards, Assessment and Accountability, where he led the development and adoption of the Common Core in 45 states. In 2010, Minnich became the Senior Membership Director, where he has served as the lead contact for all 57 of CCSSO's members. In the last two years, Minnich has led the Council's advocacy and communications teams in rallying states to collaboratively reform their standards and accountability systems. His efforts have been invaluable in advancing the national implementation of the Common Core, and cultivating essential cooperation between states and the federal government to improve education for all students. Minnich has an extensive background in assessment and accountability work. From 2005-2008, he held multiple positions at Harcourt (now Pearson), all focused on the advancement and improvement of assessments. Minnich led the development and deployment of a teacher-centered online portal focused on assessment education. As the Director of Test Design and Implementation at the Oregon Department of Education from 2003-2005, Minnich led the statewide, online assessment implementation for the Oregon Department of Education

Minnich holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Washington, Seattle, as well as a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park. Minnich lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife Whitney and his son Carson.


Oh and Chris likes to hunt and fish too. I hope he can help Arne get the hook out of his mouth before too long.

Isn't she precious though? And she's going to fix all of our schools and teachers with her law degree. 

Chris reminds me a lot of our local darling, Katie Campos, who zoomed up the ed reform ladder to a top post within range of Andrew's bad breath simply by playing all of her ed reform cards just right, avoiding those icky classrooms full of other people's kids and learning to be precious and perky for the media. You can read her breathless and spittle flecked account of Obama's first inauguration on the Democrats for Ed Reform page here that contains a reference to her "amazing connection, fluttering of eyelashes at Sammy here that got her past the rabble and into the real deal. Katie has written her own trigger law but failed to get the B-lo Board to embrace it last time she tried. She also possesses that gold standard B.A. in Poli Sci. that every edupreneur seems to have these days and lacks even a 5 minute stint teaching anything to anybody. The Buffalo News loves her and they treated her like the expert she never will be when she was the Chief of Buffalo Reform Ed. a nifty little "nonprofit" she started with the help of Sammy the Rodent Hoyt  (Of I want to be your lollipop fame) another Cuomo go to guy and horrifically tacky philanderer. Currently Young Katie has announced plans to leave the warm embrace of the Cuomoshpere and attend Law School but in the meantime she's pestering the B-Lo Board of Ed to welcome her dear edu-missionary pals from TFA into the B-Lo Schools where they can edu-slum for a year or two before starting their own Law or MFA programs. Not to stumble over the obvious but if you were to toss Lil John King into the mix here it would almost appear to be a pattern of young, soulless inexperienced corporate bots whose ambition will never allow them to stop and look at how badly the policies they advocate are hurting the kids they claim to care so deeply about. They never have anything to do with education or administration or if they do it's less than the minumum requirements call for as in the case of Lil John King and they are always shunted to the front of the line ahead of experienced wizened folk who'd balk at doing the bidding of Pearson, Gates, Murdoch and Lil Bloomie. Accuse me of Ed reform profiling and I'll have to plead No Contest.