Education Secretary Arne Duncan steps down after 7-year term

WASHINGTON (AP) — Arne Duncan, who followed President Barack Obama to Washington to serve as his education secretary, announced Friday he will step down following a seven-year tenure marked by a willingness to plunge head-on into the heated debate about the government's role in education.

Sidestepping a confirmation fight in Congress, Obama tapped John King Jr., a senior Education Department bureaucrat, to run the department while leaving the role of secretary vacant for the remainder of his presidency.

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