The familiar ticking of the clock for "60 Minutes" was set in motion on Monday when a CBS television crew came to NYSUT to hear U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan speak and gather research for a future segment. A CBS news correspondent rode on Duncan's big blue back-to-school tour bus, while a seasoned two-man camera crew set up out front of NYSUT's headquarters. The pair had just returned from a week filming the aftermath of the January earthquake in Haiti, where it has been reported that more than 200,000 people died and a million were left homeless. After the press event at NYSUT, the "60 Minutes" crew boarded the bus to continue the tour with Duncan.
Meanwhile, Duncan's visit to NYSUT was the "very, very first" press conference for new Albany Broadcasting WROW reporter Alicia Gordon, who said she was "a little" nervous.
The U.S. Department of Education has its own news team. David Hoff, deputy assistant secretary for communication development at DOE, joined the second part of the tour on Monday morning in Albany, and he will blog and tweet news feeds about the tour. Visit www.facebook.com/SecretaryArneDuncan or www.ed.gov/blog or Twitter at www.twitter.com/Ed_Outreach,
"I think it's been great. Arne's been really excited about this," Hoff said of the "Courage in the Classroom" tour.
From NYSUT, Duncan headed to Springfield, Mass., Monday afternoon, then to Keene, N.H. Monday night, followed by visits to Manchester and Portsmouth, N.H, and Portland, Maine.