President Elect Barack Obama has nominated Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan as the country’s next education secretary.

Since taking over the position seven years ago, Duncan’s plan has been to close low-performing schools and open new ones in their place. And in an Eight Forty-Eight interview a few weeks ago, Duncan said he looked forward to more outside of the box thinking in an Obama administration.

Duncan can boast that test scores in the district have increased every year under his tenure but his plans for reform have also been condemned for disrupting the early education of many students. We asked those of you who have had experiences in the Chicago School District to tell us what you think about Obama’s choice.

We invited a panel of experts to help the conversation along. Veronica Anderson is the Editor in Chief of the education reform magazine Catalyst. Tim Knowles is the Lewis-Sebring Director of the Urban Education Institute at the University of Chicago. And Alexander Russo is the author of the education blog District 299 and a former advisor to the U.S. Senate Education Committee. He is a native Chicagoan who now reports on education from New York City and that’s where he joined us from today.

Music Button: DJT, “Galaga”, from the CD Go Commando with James Friedman, (Defend music)