U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stood in the shadow Tuesday of once-segregated Monroe Elementary School in Topeka to rap the knuckles of Americans who don’t grasp the unfinished business of delivering educational opportunity to all students.

Duncan, visiting the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site while on the “Education Drives America” bus tour, said dramatic progress had been made by Americans in race relations since the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision marking the end of legal segregation in public schools.

However, the education secretary said the nation’s campaign to close the opportunity gap was far from completed.

The United States requires an urgent movement from coast to coast in the name of education excellence, he said.

“We all know we have so far to go to live up to the American dream of providing equal education for all,” Duncan said.

He said teachers in Topeka and elsewhere were dedicating their lives to education — the civil rights issue of these times.

“It’s what drives us and gets us out of bed every morning,” Duncan said. “And what sometimes keeps us awake at night. The Brown v. Board of Education is not just a part of our history, it has to be part of our future as well.”

He questioned a U.S. budget proposal by Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who serves Wisconsin in the U.S. House, that would respond to bleak economic times by slashing federal aid to public education.

“I absolutely disagree with that theory,” Duncan said. “I don’t see how the answer to closing of the opportunity gap can be to cut early childhood education and slash Pell grant scholarships for low-income students, many of whom are first-generation college goers.”

All levels of government — local, state and federal — must wisely invest in children and scrutinize spending to make the education system effective and accountable to taxpayers, he said. However, he said, the nation’s schools aren’t simply a stark line in a budget.

“Here, of all places, let us affirm again that in America education is and always must be the great equalizer,” Duncan said.

Before Duncan’s speech outside the Monroe building, the Topeka High School drum corps performed and children from Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School sang “Home on the Range.”

Diane DeBacker, commissioner at the Kansas State Department of Education, told the audience that 40,000 licensed teachers and 450,000 students in Kansas would benefit from evolution of federal policy in the past several years away from a model of student achievement anchored by No Child Left Behind.

"You’ve challenged us to raise our standards," she said. "You’ve guided us in discussions about how to assess students differently to make sure its meaningful. But most of all, you’ve held our feet to the fire. You said we were not done in terms of education.”

Beryl New, principal at Highland Park High School and a graduate of the Monroe school, said during the program that she vividly recalled the influence of her teachers at Monroe.

The roster included Mrs. North, who was a no-nonsense educator; Mrs. Crawford, who was caring and firm about expectations; and Mrs. Counts, who dispensed a love of music.

“All of these educators had high expectations for our behavior and our performance. And these were expectations extended to all children," she said. "At Monroe Elementary, no child was left behind."