U.S. schools chief: We're in 'educational emergency'
May 21, 2010 8:12 a.m. EDT
Education Secretary Arne Duncan
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(CNN) -- The battered economy is devastating school districts nationwide. Faced with shrinking budgets, many schools say they have no choice but to lay off teachers, cut arts and sports programs or consider other drastic measures to save money.
CNN's Soledad O'Brien talked with the top school official in the nation, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, about the ties between the economy and schools, the state of education and options for the classroom.
Soledad O'Brien: You often say, "We have to educate our way to a better economy." What does that mean?
Arne Duncan: When we have a national high school dropout rate of almost 30 percent and we're losing 1.2 million students to the street, how can we have a strong economy? Thirty years ago it was actually OK to drop out of high school. You could still support your family and own your own home. Today there are no good jobs for a high school dropout in the legal economy. None. There are almost no good jobs in the legal economy if you just have a high school diploma. Four years at a university, two-year community colleges,