US education chief upbeat despite election blow
By Angela Charlton/Huffington Post
President Barack Obama's education secretary is hopeful that this week's Republican election victories won't derail his ambitious school reforms, which he argues are crucial to keeping up in an ever-smarter global economy. "We used to be at the top of the world" in education rankings, Arne Duncan told The Associated Press in Paris on Thursday. "People think we're still there, but we're not." In an interview, he said the "absolutely unacceptable" U.S. high school dropout rate – a quarter of students drop out or don't finish on time – "produces the effect of a permanent recession" because of lost productivity. Duncan says he's relieved the elections are over and is "very hopeful" that the new Congress will approve the funding he wants to turn around poor schools and encourage better teacher performance. (more…)