USA Today – Greg Toppo
“Arne Duncan did not go quietly. In his final speech as U. S. Education Secretary, Duncan on Wednesday delivered a blunt, sometimes unsparing address that challenged adults to help restore safety and a basic sense of hope to millions of young people — many of whom, he said, don’t expect to make it to adulthood. Speaking from the basement of a church on Chicago’s South Side, Duncan directly linked the U.S. high school dropout rate with its youth homicide rate, saying both problems spring from the same “collective failure as adults” to nurture and protect children. “Dropping out is one level of hopelessness,” he said. “And picking up a gun and shooting someone is just that in the extreme.” Moments into the speech, Duncan’s voice shook as he recounted one grim statistic: About 16,000 young people had been killed, he said, in his first six years in Washington.”(more)