Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at Brookings

Speaking to a SRO crowd at Brookings recently, Arne Duncan endorsed the concept of using school buildings year-round, night and day. “School buildings do not belong to me; they belong to taxpayers.” he said.

“The more schools become part of community life, the better the community becomes"
since “families learn together.” Non-profits could use school buildings from 3 – 9 p.m. like some Chicago schools have done, and no rent is collected: “Whose room is it?” he asked.

Schools can be safe havens in crime areas. One questioner from the Service Employees Union said schools “are the safest places” in some communities.

A retired math professor said it was common knowledge that students now enter college less prepared than they were five years ago, and students five years ago were less prepared than their predecessors: “What are we doing about this?”

He lamented the lousy teaching of fractions, often taught by professionals who do not understand them themselves, noting “A massive amount of money is being spent on pedagogy” which would be better spent on “teaching content.”

Secretary Duncan said the massive infusion of stimulus dollars will save “hundreds of thousands” of teaching positions.

What should be a goal for 2012? Sec. Duncan said one goal should be to close the 500 “chronically underperforming schools.”

Managing federal money is not easy: The dilemma to use the funds “short-term” (before their two-year expiration) while trying to solve long-term problems puts schools in a quandary.

Nine states have already spent their stimulus money. Russell Whitehurst, a member of the panel which convened after Duncan's presentation, said $100 billion flowing from the U.S. Department of Education is a huge amount to manage.

When asked by a member of the audience, Velma Sawhill, another panelist, said there was a risk that some federal dollars would be spent unwisely since it is “so much, so fast.” Mike Smith, another panel member, said “it takes a long time to go through all the channels.”

Dr. Whitehurst said a recent study of technology in the classroom showed about the same level of performance by students who had technological classroom benefits as those students who do not. He said tech product developers protested the results of the study saying time and teacher training to implement the new technologies damaged the results.