Education Secretary Arne Duncan: will serve as long as Obama wants him. In Chicago Thursday.

WASHINGTON–With White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood saying they will leave at the end of the term, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will serve as long as President Obama wants him.

“He will stay as long as the president will have him,” said spokesman Peter Cunningham.

Duncan, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO, returns to Chicago on Thursday. He will appear with Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean Claude Brizard and school board vice president David Vitale at an afternoon event to highlight the Lights On Afterschool programs around the country at the Morton Elementary School, 431 N. Troy.

Duncan hit Shurz High School at an event last September.

Daley told NBC5 WMAQ’s Mary Ann Ahern he planned to return to Chicago at the end of Obama’s term. LaHood told the Chicago Tribune’s Katherine Skiba he would also depart after four years. Clinton has told several interviewers she looks forward to winding up duties at the State Department after years of constant travel.

If Obama was elected to a second term, and if asked to remain in the administration, Duncan would want to continue to serve.