Rural Tour Focuses on Education

In Hamlet, North Carolina on Monday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Education Secretary Arne Duncan held another rural tour community forum. This time the focus was on the importance of strengthening education. Vilsack said it is imperative that schools are equipping students with the skills they need for the future, and the forum will help collect ideas about how the government can better serve teachers and students in these communities.

"We have way too many children dropping out of school and not enough students completing college," Duncan said. "At the same time, we have more good examples of what works than ever before and we need to replicate those good examples at the local level and take them to scale. If we can do this, we can change the lives of children forever."