DCist unfortunately didn’t have a critic there, but by all accounts Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made an onstage appearance at last night’s Neko Case concert at the 9:30 Club. … Arne made a special appeal to the college-aged crowd to consider careers in teaching. “We have a chance to change the country,” he said. “We want to make sure every child has a great, great teacher. So I want to encourage you….Those of…

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) UPDATE: Wesley Denton, a spokesperson for Sen. DeMint, has responded by email: “The Washington Times misreported Senator DeMint’s comments, they were not his opinion, he was in fact quoting a D.C. mother who had spoken to him this week of her concern for her child joining a gang,” Denton wrote. The email also links to a New York Post account of the press conference, which gives the quote as follows:…

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan went on NPR yesterday and told Melissa Block that his two young kids will attend a D.C. public school. “There are great, great schools (in D.C.),” Duncan said. “We feel very confident they’ll be able to get a great education here.” There was some criticism lobbed at the Obamas for choosing a hoity toity D.C. private school for their girls, but you could at least make the argument that…

Richard Whitmire, head of the National Education Writers Association, puts it all in perspective today, arguing that like it or not, Arne Duncan, Obama’s choice to be Secretary of Education, will need to wade into the local union battles being fought in the District by Chancellor Michelle Rhee. He predicts that a clash between Rhee’s “Clint Eastwood-esque power” and the typical federal interference in DCPS will be impossible to avoid and cautions Duncan, “don’t even…

Over the weekend the Post launched its investigative series/Pulitzer bait on the District’s charter schools, which together enroll about a third of D.C.’s students. In addition to profiling the high-performing D.C. Prep, the Post dug into the suspect financial benefits some members of the D.C. Public Charter School Board have received as a result of their board work, mostly through the complicated world of charter school loans and financing. The Post found conflicts of interest…