U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will travel to Carl Schurz High School in Chicago on Friday, Sept. 9, where he will visit a classroom and engage in a panel discussion with local leaders, including Gov. Pat Quinn, State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago public schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard and state labor officials, to discuss and celebrate the progressive education reform happening across Illinois.
Duncan’s visit to Chicago is part of “Education and the Economy,” a back-to-school bus tour stopping in cities around the Great Lakes. Several officials will also travel to Chicago on Friday, including U.S. Deputy Education Secretary Tony Miller, U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Eduardo Ochoa, Federal Student Aid Awareness & Outreach Representative Richard Blasen, Deputy Director for the Office of English Language Acquisition Joanne Urrutia and several Teaching Ambassador Fellows (TAFs).
In the morning, Miller will give remarks on the importance of public-private partnerships at a United Way breakfast with local business leaders at the Northern Trust headquarters. Kanter will visit the Naval Station Great Lakes, where she will tour the facilities and attend a Basic Training Graduation for Navy recruits. In the afternoon, she will hold a college completion event and learn about the dual enrollment program at Governors State University's Center for Performing Arts in University Park. Ochoa and Blasen will discuss federal student aid and hold a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion event at Mather High School. And Urrutia will visit the El Valor Community Center to observe early learning programs for English Language Learners. In addition to these events, several of the Department's Teaching Ambassador Fellows will meet with local teachers and hold roundtable discussions.
The TAF program invites public school teachers from across the country to join the Department as professional contributors. TAFs hold one-year positions with the Department to learn about and contribute their expertise to national policy issues in education. Fellows, in turn, share what they’ve learned with other teachers and gain their input into policy and programs.
Chicago will mark the final stop on the six-state, three-day tour throughout the Midwest. During the tour, Duncan and several Department officials have held a broad series of events to help promote the work of our nation’s educators, parents, administrators and education stakeholders in building a strong cradle-to-college and -career continuum that prepares our students to compete in the growing global economy.
To learn more about Duncan's stops along the tour, visit the Department's blog at: http://www.ed.gov/blog/topic/bustour/.