And now from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, the Act Spiles, with your host, David Axelrod.

America knows Arnie Duncan as the recently departed longstanding U.S. Secretary of Education,

who pushed aggressive school reform across the country and was at the center of the debate

over the Common Core Standards and other initiatives to try and lift the performance of students

and particularly students in underperforming schools. I happen to know him since he was an early teenager hanging around the gyms of Chicago playing basketball

with, by the way, better proficiency than me by a thousandfold. And later as the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools

and as a really passionate, genuine advocate for children and particularly children in need.

So it's a pleasure to welcome Arnie home to Chicago the other day when we sat down for a conversation about children, schools, and where we go from here.

Arnie Duncan, welcome. We're here at the University of Chicago. I don't know if you remember the first time we encountered each other,

but I remember you hanging around the Bartlett gym here as a kid when I went over there to play basketball and you were like a gym rat.

And it was before you had your growth spurred. But you have deep roots in this community. You remember Bartlett and it was I know-

I know-

I know-

I used to come watch you play over there.

Yes. And you had that unbelievable corkscrew jump shot from 30.

Yes, and if I had to find every log of physics and gravity, and there's no 3.0.

I went to, I actually taught Joe Kim Noah on the shoot.

So-

I had the 3.0 line you would have made a lot of money in a different business.

No, I know. I know. But-

And had there been no gym, I probably would have been a better student.

So-

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