Duncan ‘Invited’ Education Dept. Employees to Sharpton Rally

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged Education Department employees to attend a controversial rally Saturday sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton. The Sharpton event was organized to counter a larger event on the Washington Mall held by Fox News Channel commentator Glenn Beck.

“ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the 'Reclaim the Dream' rally and march," began an internal e-mail sent Wednesday to more than 4,000 Education Department employees.

The e-mail was reported by the Washington Examiner on Monday.

Federal law prohibits government employees from participating in campaigns. The e-mail did not require any employee to attend the rally, but an Education Department staffer reportedly felt uncomfortable about the tone of the e-mail and sent it to a reporter.

Unlike the Beck rally, where organizers made a point of discouraging attendees from carrying political signs, Sharpton’s event—promoted as a commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech—was openly partisan.

“[Conservatives] think we showed up [to vote for Barack Obama] in 2008 and that we won’t show up again. But we know how to sucker-punch, and we’re coming out again in 2010,” Sharpton told the hundreds of activists and union organizers at his event.

In his address to rally-goers, Duncan did not take a confrontational tone. He called education reform “the civil rights issue of our generation” and urged listeners to “stop being complacent” about education and “demand excellence.”

“Duncan didn’t just embrace Sharpton in his personal role as a citizen. He mobilized the U.S. Department of Education to support Sharpton by encouraging employees to attend Sharpton’s anti-Glenn-Beck rally,” writes Greg Forster at Jay P. Greene’s eponymous group blog.

“A department spokesperson lamely tried to evade responsibility by saying ‘This was a back-to-school event,’" Forster added. “Really?”

“It was a ‘highly inappropriate’ thing to do, pushing people who are supposed to serve all Americans to support one side of a ‘political debate,’” blogged Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.

But McCluskey argues that wasn’t the only problem with Duncan’s appearance.

“Perhaps just as troubling as his rally-prodding is that Duncan declared education ‘the civil rights issue of our generation’ at Sharpton’s event. This only about a year after helping to kill an education program widely supported by many of the people he and Sharpton insist they want to empower,” McCluskey writes. “I’m talking, of course, about Washington, DC’s, Opportunity Scholarship Program, a voucher program that was proven effective. But the heck with success — Duncan and President Obama let the union-hated program die.”

Ben Boychuk (bboychuk@heartland.org) is managing editor of School Reform News.