My apologies for misattributing some quotes from the program in the original version of this post.

A spokesman for the Obama administration's Department of Education, appearing on a Jan. 12 radio broadcast, readily agreed with the views of another program guest who sharply criticized jhis department's Race to the Top school reform program.

Peter Cunningham, assistant secretary of communications for the U.S. Department of Education, appeared on the program "To the Point" on radio station KCRW with education researcher Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute. Cunningham willingly concurred with Rothstein that overreliance on standardized testing is detrimental to students, and that "many" charter schools, a model being promoted as a solution for troubled schools, are not successful. Rothstein spoke forcefully about the "major harm" done by administration policies, getting no argument from Cunningham.

Peter Cunningham (above, standing) was the main press person for Arne Duncan on June 19, 2009 (above) when Duncan announced the conditions he was going to set for "Race To The Top." Duncan's announcement came at a breakfast in Chicago sponsored by a corporate group called "Advance Illinois." Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The Obama administration's education department is promoting policies that are "actually harming the education of students in this country," Rothstein charged, and "education has been corrupted" by those policies.

"A major consequence of No Child Left Behind that's done major harm to American education is the narrowing of the curriculum," he said. Sciences, history, social studies, music, the arts and physical education are neglected or abandoned as educators struggle to adhere to NCLB's emphasis on math and reading, Rothstein explained, and "Race to the Top doesn't change that." Abandoning important subjects "does the most harm to disadvantaged students," Rothstein added. Race to the Top, he said, is "accentuating the harm that NCLB did."

"Absolutely that's a very real issue," Cunningham admitted.

When Rothstein pointed out that "charter schools on average don't have better student performance than regular public schools," Cunningham responded, "We 100% agree that many of them are not good."

Moderator Warren Olney asked Rothstein: "Are standardized tests a good measure of teacher performance and ultimately of school performance?"

"No, they're not," Rothstein responded. "Education has been corrupted. In addition to narrowing the curriculum by abandoning other topics, what this kind of system does is create incentives to game the system. We're actually harming the education of students in this country."

Peter Cunningham (above, in White Sox cap) has long taken "progressive" stands on public issues. On October 27, 2007, for example, Cunningham and his wife (holding "Cut Off the Money" sign were part of a major anti-war march in Chicago that ended at the Chicago federal plaza. The plaza was the site of Barack Obama's famous anti-war speech three years earlier (the speech that Obama's campaign used to cut off Hillary Clinton from many anti-war voters during the Democratic Party primaries). Above, Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham stood with Sharon Schmidt, Josh Schmidt (holding "Stop the War" sign) and Sam Schmidt (holding the "No War" sign he had made himself) during the speeches at the October 27, 2007 march in Chicago against the Iraq War. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Rothstein is a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute, a former education columnist for the New York Times, and the author of many books and studies about education policy.

Cunningham was previously a communications consultant for the Chicago Public Schools during the time when his current boss, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, was head of that school system.