President-elect Barack Obama continues to unveil more cabinet picks. On Tuesday, Obama announced Chicago School Superintendent Arne Duncan as his nominee for Secretary of Education. Speaking in Chicago, Obama said he would adopt a bipartisan approach to improving the US education system, vowing to seek ideas from all sides of the education debate. He also listed affordable education as one of his priorities.

President-elect Barack Obama: “If we want to out-compete the world tomorrow, then we’re going to have to out-educate the world today. Unfortunately, when our high school dropout rate is one of the highest in the industrialized world, when a third of all fourth graders can’t do basic math, when more and more Americans are getting priced out of attending college, we’re falling far short of that goal.”

Obama is expected to announce two more cabinet picks today. Democratic Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado has been chosen to head the Department of Interior. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack will be nominated to serve as Agriculture Secretary. Vilsack is known as a strong proponent of ethanol, which has driven up global food prices as an alternative fuel. The selection of an Agriculture Secretary has come under recent scrutiny from food rights advocates. A group of farmers, chefs and policy advocates calling themselves “Food Democracy Now” recently submitted a letter urging Obama to take on industrialized agriculture and promote a more sustainable policy. Vilsack was not among their list of six recommended candidates for the Agriculture position.