The base corruption of Obama's Education Secretary

Breaking news out of Chicago this morning that should lead to the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, at the very least.

While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former schools chief Arne Duncan.

Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the city's premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list maintained over several years in Duncan's office and obtained by the Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Duncan is now secretary of education under President Barack Obama.

The log is a compilation of politicians and influential business people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan's tenure. It includes 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley's office, House Speaker Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

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The list was maintained by a top Duncan aide, David Pickens, currently chief of staff to the president of the Chicago Board of Education. Pickens said he created the log at Duncan's behest to track the flood of calls pouring into district offices from parents, politicians and business leaders trying to navigate the system's mysterious and maligned application process.

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The initials "AD" are listed 10 times as the sole person requesting help for a student, and as a co-requester about 40 times. Pickens said "AD" stood for Arne Duncan, though Duncan's involvement is unclear. Duncan's mother appears as a sponsor, as does "KD," whom Pickens identified as Karen Duncan, Arne's wife.

While Duncan was abusing his power to get his well-connected friends' children into good schools, other children were growing up educationally-stunted. Chicago's public schools are the second-worst in the nation. Many have criticized Obama in the past for rewarding failure by promoting Duncan to education secretary. Now we know he was also rewarding blatant corruption.

It's highly unlikely Obama himself didn't know about Duncan's list. Desiree Rogers, the White House's own former social secretary and close friend of the First Lady's, received preferential treatment. So did Lisa Madigan, a friend of Obama's and Rahm's who the White House favored to take over the president's former Senate seat. If there is a legitimate investigation into this (and in Chicago that's a huge "if"), it could find guilt at our highest levels of government.