US education chief meets with local City Year corps

(Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaking to Boston City Year corp members.

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan engaged in a question-and-answer session this afternoon with local City Year members at the group's South End headquarters.

Mayor Thomas Menino and other community and business leaders were on hand along with more than 140 local corp members of the national youth-service organization, the group said. Duncan touted the importance of turning around struggling schools and the role that volunteers can play in the effort, it said.

This evening, Duncan was scheduled to speak at the Phillips Brooks House Association’s 2010 “Robert Coles ‘Call of Service’ Lecture and Award” in the Memorial Church at Harvard University.

The Phillips Brooks House Association describes itself is a student-led nonprofit at Harvard that engages students in 86 social service and social action programs in Boston and Cambridge.