President-elect Obama is nominating Chicago public school CEO Arne Duncan (hearing Tuesday) to be secretary of education and Eric Shinseki (hearing Wednesday) to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.
AARON GLANTZ
Author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans, Glantz is Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism at The Carter Center.
He said today: “About 200,000 veterans sleep homeless on the streets every night in this country. According to the VA’s own numbers, 18 veterans commit suicide every day. Veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan are already falling through the cracks.
“President-elect Obama and Gen. Shinseki have the power to end this national disgrace. They have the power to streamline the VA bureaucracy so it helps rather than fights those who have been wounded in the line of duty. They can ensure that this latest generation of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan does not receive the bum rap the Vietnam War generation got.”
PAULINE LIPMAN
Lipman is professor of policy studies at the College of Education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Her books include High Stakes Education: Inequality, Globalization, and Urban School Reform. She is available to address Arne Duncan’s record in Chicago and education policy generally.
Critical background information on Duncan is available from these Chicago-based groups:
Parents United for Responsible Education
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
