Duncan, USDOE Stonewall on His Ties to SALF

Arne Duncan and Carol Spizzirri

Regular readers of this blog recall that in June of this year I sent an open letter to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in an attempt to get his input on open questions surrounding his involvement with the Save-A-Life Foundation and its founder/president, Carol Spizzirri. What ensued was a four-month runaround from various functionaries working for Mr. Duncan which concluded with a classic non-answer answer that advised me to seek the information I requested about Mr. Duncan's views from . . . wait for it! . . . officials in the Chicago Public Schools. How they were supposed to be able to read Mr. Duncan's mind was not specified. But I didn't need to be a mind reader to recognize that I wasn't going to get a meaningful reply from Arne Duncan. Was I disappointed? You bet. Was I surprised that someone who appears to have skeletons in his closet he'd prefer the American public would either forget or never hear rattling in the first place was  not forthcoming about them? Not in the least.

Yesterday, Peter Heimlich, who has  been vigorously pursuing this story, posted his findings on his blog, The Sidebar:

Haunted by his ties to tainted nonprofit, Education Secretary Arne Duncan ignores questions about $174,000 "phantom" program he arranged for the group

If you've not been following this story here, Peter's piece is probably the best summary of the entire scandal, and even if you have, you would do well to read his expert take on Duncan and SALF.