Duncan: Stimulus must include $20 billion for school construction

Education Secretary Arne Duncan visits with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, Tuesday.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of students Tuesday that the Senate's version of the country's economic-stimulus package contains no money for school construction projects -- a problem he hopes to correct by fighting for the inclusion in the final bill of $20 billion for infrastructure improvements that had been present in the House version of the stimulus package. "I think we're not just in an economic crisis, but in an education crisis, and we just simply can't afford to take a step backward," Duncan said. "The only way we're going to sustain and bring back a strong economy is through better educating our children and our young adults." CNN (2/11) , Seattle Post-Intelligencer