Ed. Secretary Admits to Misleading about Teacher Pink Slips

Still tries to spin sequestration fears

Education Secretary Arne Duncan tried Friday to explain his claim that teachers have already been laid off because of sequestration –– all he'd meant to say was that teachers have been warned about layoffs tied to the federal spending cuts.

"Let me be really, really clear about this, we're getting caught in the details here: What I said was that teachers were getting notices. In the district we talked about, 110 teachers have gotten notices," he said during a question-and-answer session at Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park, Md., just outside the District of Columbia. "Now I think there was a misinterpretation that they're being laid off tomorrow. That's not what I said, that's not what I meant."

What Duncan did say earlier this week sounded like he thought the Kanawha County school district had already started firing teachers. "Whether it's all sequester-related, I don't know, but these are teachers wh