Barack Obama's Education Secretary just broke with his party — and he didn’t hold back.
Now Democrats who spent a decade calling Republicans anti-education have a problem.
What he said about red states is something the unions will never forgive him for.
Democrats Lost the Education Issue to Republicans After Surrendering to Teachers Unions
Democrats owned the education issue for a generation.
They were the party of children, schools, and teachers — or so voters believed.
That advantage evaporated in 2024, and former Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan just explained why.
"Republicans were more popular on education in swing states," Duncan told The 74 education news site. "It's inconceivable to me, but education was a losing issue for Democrats. And that election was so close, you could argue that our party's lack of leadership on education helped give the presidency to Trump."
He didn't stop there.
"We're adrift, it's killing us politically, and it's killing our kids," Duncan said. "We've lost any vision for education."
The teachers unions delivered that outcome.
When Duncan pushed accountability measures during the Obama years — charter schools, teacher evaluations tied to results, national standards — the unions tried to destroy him.
The National Education Association formally called for his resignation in 2014.
The American Federation of Teachers issued him a "Secretary Improvement Plan" and warned that if he didn't shape up, he should quit.
Duncan pushed back then.
Democrats have since surrendered completely.
They handed curriculum, policy, and political loyalty to the unions whose core interest is protecting adult jobs — not teaching children to read.
The result: a generation of American kids trapped in government schools that cannot educate them while their parents beg for alternatives.
The Mississippi Miracle Proves Phonics Works While California Reading Scores Keep Falling
Duncan didn't just admit Democrats lost the education argument.
He named exactly who won it.
"How is it possible that the states showing the most progress on student results are all red states?" Duncan said. "We should be deeply ashamed."
Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi — states Democrats have mocked as backward for decades — are now delivering better results than California and New York.
Mississippi's turnaround is the most dramatic education story in America.
In 2013, the state ranked 49th nationally in fourth-grade reading, with an average score of 209 against a national average of 221.
Then Republican Governor Phil Bryant signed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act — requiring phonics-based instruction, early screening for struggling readers, classroom coaches, and a hard stop at third grade for kids who couldn't read before advancing.
The unions hated all of it.
By 2022, Mississippi had climbed from 49th to 21st in fourth-grade reading nationally.
California, meanwhile, spent those same years clinging to "whole language" and "balanced literacy" — reading methods that education school professors preferred and that research consistently showed didn't work.
The 2024 NAEP results confirmed the damage: California fourth graders continued performing below pre-pandemic scores in both reading and math, with the lowest-performing students falling further behind every year.
Mississippi did it with less money.
California's problem isn't funding — it's who controls the classroom.
Democrats Block School Choice Tax Credit While Poor Kids Stay Trapped in Failing Schools
Duncan also called out Democrat governors for blocking a federal tax credit scholarship program for private schools designed for low and moderate-income families — those earning below 300% of their area's median income.
The program takes effect next January.
Most Democrat governors, including New York's Kathy Hochul, have refused to opt in.
The teachers unions told them not to.
Duncan called that refusal a moral failure.
"In every state, 90-plus percent of kids go to public schools, and they're going to remain in public schools," Duncan said. "This is a program to supplement what they get because we're not giving them enough."
The families waiting on those scholarships are not wealthy.
They are the working-class and minority voters Democrats claim to champion — while leaving their children in schools that cannot teach them to read.
Chuck Schumer declined to comment when asked about Duncan's critique.
Hakeem Jeffries had no immediate response.
The two most powerful Democrats in Congress — both from New York, a state with chronically underperforming government schools — had nothing to say.
Duncan spent his career inside the Democrat education machine, and the union bosses who demanded his resignation when he pushed for results have now won completely.
"We have no goals," Duncan said. "I can't be more explicit about the fact that we don't have an education agenda, and that is incredibly troubling to me."
That's not a Republican talking.
That's Obama's own man watching Mississippi fourth graders outread California fourth graders — and admitting his party put them there.
Sources:
- Marianna Brady, "We're Adrift: Arne Duncan on Democrats' Education Agenda," The 74, April 30, 2026.
- Carl Campanile, "Obama's education secretary flunks Dems over failing schools," New York Post, May 3, 2026.
- Jonathan Butcher, "How Mississippi Became a National Model for Reading Reform," The Daily Signal, 2024.
- "2024 NAEP Reading Assessment: Results at Grades 4 and 8," National Center for Education Statistics, January 2025.