Today's CTU community summit/rally was held at Ariel Academy, a small school founded by John Rogers, Jr., president and CEO of Ariel Capital Management, and a good friend and basketball buddy of President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, whose first real job in education was with Rogers' Ariel Initiative. 

To his credit, John Rogers was at the rally, where he heard complaints, challenges, and calls for change from the speakers, beginning with new Chicago Teachers' Union President Karen Lewis's fiery speech which soundly rejected the Daley/Duncan/Huberman version of school reform. 

I decided to try to send a message to Arne through John Rogers, so I went up to him, introduced myself, and thanked him for coming. I said that what the speakers were saying was very different from the way his friend Arne Duncan talks about education. I asked him to share with Arne what he was hearing today and he said that he would -- that he would be talking to Arne this afternoon and he would tell him what he heard. 

Maybe Mr. Rogers will also share our message with Mr. Obama.