Dive Brief:

• In an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer republished by eSchool News, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez make the case for a K-14 school model.
• The K-12 education system, the two cabinet members argue, doesn't adequately provide the "knowledge, flexibility, and ingenuity" for a 21st Century economy in which many current students will work jobs that don't exist yet.
• The duo also cite schools that offer career education in subjects like robotics and computer science in partnership with employers, naming Brooklyn's P-TECH specifically for its six-year high school length and collaboration with IBM and City University of New York.

Dive Insight:

Of course, the argument that schools should partner with private-sector employers might not sit well with those wary of the privatization of public schools. But the need for more career and technical education is a popular argument on all sides these days. The current education system was designed with the notion that a majority of students pumped out would go on to factory work after finishing high school. Today, that simply isn't the case.

It's worth noting that President Barack Obama's proposal for free community college would also essentially create a K-14 system if it becomes reality.