Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tar­yArne Dun­can Image source: Asso­ci­at­ed Press

Pres­i­dent Obama’s edu­ca­tion sec­re­tary is stir­ring con­tro­ver­sy by sug­gest­ing the U.S. gov­ern­ment should launch board­ing schools for kids – chil­dren the gov­ern­ment would have 24 hours a day.

Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Arne Dun­can made the com­ments Tues­day in Arling­ton, Va., at the Youth Vio­lence Pre­ven­tion Sum­mit. (Video is avail­able below.)

“One idea that I threw out … is this idea of pub­lic board­ing schools. That’s a lit­tle bit of a dif­fer­ent idea, a con­tro­ver­sial idea,” he said. “But the ques­tion is — do we have some chil­dren where there’s not a mom, there’s not a dad, there’s not a grand­ma, there’s just nobody at home? There’s just cer­tain kids we should have 24/7 to real­ly cre­ate a safe envi­ron­ment and give them a chance to be successful.”

He also said cur­rent schools should be “com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters” and “be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day” with “a wide vari­ety of after-school programs.”