Report: Arne Duncan to resign in December

The Associated Press is out with a report that US Education Secretary Arne Duncan will resign in December.

Along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, he is one of two members of Barack Obama’s original Cabinet team to remain in office.

He’s also an unusual figure in the Obama administration in that his tenure has featured tons and tons of clashes with teachers unions. In an earlier era, you could have imagined this making Duncan the GOP’s favorite member of the Obama Cabinet. But given the realities of political polarization, even as Duncan spent a lot of time fighting with a key Democratic Party interest group he hasn’t found much backing from Republicans. Instead, Republicans have in some surprising ways teamed up with teachers unions to undermine the Obama/Duncan agenda on K-12 education.