The Washington Post is reporting that President elect Obama will name Chicago School Superintendent Arne Duncan as his Secretary of Education. Duncan will be named tommorow. From the Post:

President-elect Barack Obama will name Chicago public schools superintendent Arne Duncan as his secretary of education at a news conference tomorrow at a Chicago elementary school, a senior Democratic official said.

Duncan, 44, is chief executive of Chicago Public Schools, where he has steered one of the nation’s largest school districts since 2001. A graduate of Harvard University, Duncan was raised in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, not far from Obama’s home, and is a longtime friend and basketball partner of Obama’s. Duncan is a former director of Ariel Education Initiative, which creates educational opportunities for inner-city youth in Chicago’s South Side. He began working for Chicago Public Schools in 1998.

An important choice, as the battle between the reform wing of the Party and those comitted to the more “traditional” democratic views in education heats up. The group, Democrats for Education Reform issued a statement supporting the appointment:

DFER recommended Duncan to the Obama administration in their Education Transition Memo as a way to send a strong signal that education reform will be a priority for the administration NEW YORK, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ — In response to the widely reported selection of Arne Duncan to head the U.S. Department of Education in President-elect Obama’s administration, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) championed the selection and urged the incoming secretary to make good on the promises Obama made while campaigning for the presidency. DFER was an early advocate of the selection of Duncan in the Education Transition Memo they released on November 11, because of his commitment to education reform ideas and his experience implementing reform in the Chicago Public Schools.

This group advocates policies that are not always in favor with the teachers unions:

DFER supports Democratic candidates committed to progressive ideas like greater mayoral accountability for schools; adjustments in teacher licensing requirements; changes to teacher compensation to reward our best educators; and a renewed focus on early childhood education (in particular, linking early childhood education with charter schools, which usually do not include Pre-K).