It was an odd feeling, sitting in a room populated more by cameramen and field trip participants than press for Secretary Arne Duncan’s Newsmakers speech at the National Press Club this morning. Perhaps they had heard it all before (he has delivered the same talking points since February). Perhaps it was just a Friday.

The speech - like the Secretary - was friendly, upbeat, likable. It delivered some hard facts, but left you smiling, hopeful.

The approach seems to be to talk and talk about the solutions to come, but never really illustrate the problems (and never deliver details).

I won’t bore you discussing something you can read and watch for yourself, but here are a few notes I found interesting:

- Though he has tried to maneuver into a larger conversation about higher ed of late, the juicy details reporters are looking for (judging by their question submissions) still revolve around K-12 stimulus money and his $5 billion Race to the Top Fund.

- “Money alone does not begin to be the answer.” Well, money might not be the answer, but it sure was the basis of almost every question from the crowd.

- Don’t tell anyone around here, but the great ideas on education reform aren’t coming from within the Beltway. They’re coming from local educators and communities.

- While he wants to “clone that magic” from our greatest schools, the country needs to be thinking about the lowest performing schools most of all.

- “It’s not about the money, but the reforms this money will drive.”

- Any state vying for Race to the Top funds can’t cherry pick one or two reforms, they must subscribe to them all, “the full sweep”.

- It’s about the money.

Gut reactions from the speech itself can be found on our Twitter stream.