President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for education secretary supported a proposal this year for a Chicago public high school that would be geared to gay students.
Arne Duncan, the Chicago school superintendent, approved plans for the Pride Campus of Social Justice High School, which was set to be voted on by the school board in November, only to be pulled by organizers at the last minute after controversy.
Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools since 2001, was nominated by Obama for the cabinet post at a press conference Tuesday morning, CNN reports.
The 44-year-old Harvard graduate helped write the president-elect’s education platform and has frequently advised him on educational matters, according to The New York Times.
In June, bolstered by grim statistics, a group of Chicago teachers, administrators, and education experts presented a groundbreaking proposal to the Chicago public school board: A new Pride Campus, affiliated with the existing Social Justice High School, eventually serving 400 to 600 students, would provide a safe and accepting place for LGBT kids and their allies.
The public charter school would have been only the third of its kind in the country, after Milwaukee’s Alliance School and New York City’s Harvey Milk High Schoo
