Secretary of Education Arne Duncan headlined the final day of the South by Southwest Education conference, offering his thoughts on educational technologies and fielding questions about the future of learning in the United States.

His speech, given March 8 to a crowd of educators, entrepreneurs and other community leaders, highlighted this year's focus at SXSWedu: putting technology in classrooms.

"I really believe that technology is a game-changer in the field of education," he said. "It's a game-changer we desperately need, both to improve achievement for all and to increase equity for children and for communities that have been historically desperately underserved."

Duncan urged those in attendance to push for progress and also expressed the need to tailor learning experiences to the individual, to inspire creativity and build an infrastructure to support collaborative learning environments in schools. He spoke about the necessary changes to an industrialized education system that is becoming increasingly antiquated in a technology-driven job market and the imperative to provide disadvantage students with the same opportunities as their more privileged peers.

"Technology can level the playing field, instead of tilting it against low-income, minority and rural students who might not have laptops and iPhones at home," he said. "It opens the door for all students, as long as we make sure the students with the most need have real access."

Appointed by President Obama in 2008, the Chicago native has been a strong advocate of elevating teachers' statuses as one of the top professions in the country and creating incentives for talented educators. He said the status of the teaching profession has been beaten down and disrespected.

"We've demonized teachers; we haven't given them the respect they need," he said. "I think teachers are desperately underpaid. Not everyone agrees with me, but I've been very public, I think we should double starting teacher's salaries No one goes into to teaching to make a million dollars, but you shouldn't have to take a vow of poverty to do it either."

He also expressed an ambitious desire to get high school dropout rates down to zero, saying that dropouts "are basically condemned to poverty and social failure."

During the Q&A portion of the keynote speech, an audience member asked, "[When] are we going to actually put a ceiling on what a college can charge as tuition? If you accrue a debt of $200,000 to go find a job that pays $27,000 to $30,000, you're starting six feet under."

Duncan responded by emphasizing Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plans and an increase in Pell Grants by $40 billion over the next decade. But he acknowledged that more needs to be done to ensure that a greater number of the young populace has a chance to pursue higher education.

"We have some folks in Congress who want to roll some of these things back, not increase work-study and roll back Pell Grants. We have to challenge that," he said. "Budgets aren't just about numbers, they reflect our values."

Duncan openly called out Congress more than once, saying its political priorities are "out of whack."

"Congress clearly is not leading. At a certain point, when Congress decides—in their own self interest—that they're tired of being the least popular they've ever been in the history of Congress, that they decide to do something together, I can't think of a better place to be than education," he said. "We spend $30,000, $40,000 and $50,000 to [put someone in prison], but we try to increase education a couple hundred dollars and that's some huge debate in this country."

Duncan addressed the No Child Left Behind education policy, which supports standardized testing as a measure for achievement, calling it "fundamentally broken." He added that he would meet with Gov. Rick Perry and encourage Texas to apply for a waiver that would pardon the state from certain aspects of NCLB.

The Secretary of Education was one of three in a series of keynote speakers at SXSWedu, which included LeVar Burton from "Reading Rainbow" and Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino.