Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who returned to his native Chicago earlier this year after nearly seven years with the Obama administration, said on Thursday that he will join a philanthropic campaignA underwritten by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Duncan, 51, will join the Emerson Collective as a managing partner, leading a acomprehensive efforta to improve opportunities for young people in Chicago.

The work will initially focus on young people aged 17 to 24 who are neither working nor in school, many of whom have criminal records and lack high school diplomas, the organization said. “And picking up a gun and shooting someone is just that in the extreme.”

Moments into his farewellA speech, Duncan’s voice shook as he recounted one grim statistic: About 16,000 young people had been killed, he said, in his first six years in Washington.A The total after seven years was likely “north of 18,000,” or an average of seven children killed every day, he said. And are we willing to think long-term?”

Duncan on Thursday said he will also work with Powell Jobsa XQ SuperSchool Project, an experimental effort that seeks to remake high school for a high-tech, post-factory era.A Funded to the tune of $50 million over five years, it will select five or more promising new public high school models later this year and underwrite experimentation a $2 million per year per school.

The organization on Thursday said nearly 700 design applications have been submitted so far.

Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo

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