A standing room only crowd filled the auditorium at Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) – Green Valley Ranch, the turnout being a clear tribute to the level of attention and community awareness about education that has been generated in Colorado. As a part of Governor John Hickenlooper declaring this week to be Colorado Literacy Week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan paid Coloradans a visit to talk more about the federal government’s plans for influencing education.

The tone of Secretary Duncan’s message remained consistent, he envisions a federal Department of Education that is less of a bureaucracy that demands compliance from states and more of a hub for good ideas and stimulating states to adopt what is working throughout the country.

The Secretary also fielded questions from the audience, including one from a DSST student explaining how many of his friends are on a waiting list to get into DSST and asking why more high performing charter schools aren’t opening more quickly. Secretary Duncan responded by saying his department is doing all it can to support the proliferation of all good schools, be they traditional or charter, and replicating their best practices. Interestingly, he even went so far as to say we needed to learn lessons from the private sector, citing specifically the ability of a McDonalds or Starbucks to replicate quickly.

More reporting on this event can be read at Ed News Colorado.

Also speaking at the event were Bill Kurtz, CEO of DSST; Tom Boasberg, Superintendent of Denver Public Schools; Colorado’s Lt. Governor Joe Garcia; and State Board of Education Chairman Robert Hammond.

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