Into the breach stepped Duncan, another education amateur who had given up on an Australian professional basketball career to return to his hometown and work for Vallas. A Harvard grad and the son of a University of Chicago professor, Duncan had political connections to Daley's Chicago Democratic machine and a rising political star, state Sen. Barack Obama, his neighbor in the liberal Hyde Park neighborhood.
With the passage of the NCLB law in 2002, Duncan made use of George W. Bush's toolkit, putting pressure on schools that failed to meet their "adequate yearly progress" in raising standards. Three elementary schools were closed in 2003, the first in a long list of shutdowns that Duncan would impose.
In 2004, Duncan and Daley dropped the big one: Renaissance 2010, a plan to close dozens of "failing" schools and replace them new ones or charter schools. The plan was based largely on a blueprint drawn up the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, an institution of wealthy individuals and business executives determined to socially engineer Chicago to suit their interests.
Ren2010, as it's known, revealed the Daley-Duncan-business agenda for public education in Chicago. Rather than ramping up funding for smaller class sizes and additional classroom resources, their aim was to create distinct tiers of education and ration access to the best schools.
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