Cursive is faster... no doubt about it. You don't have to keep picking up the writing instrument.
However, it's much easier to be sloppy (because you're going at a much higher speed). I think it boils down to a tradeoff between speed and legibility.
My daughter is in a class where they tried to started to teach them the basics of touch typing last spring (and that was in 1st grade). That was a little ludicrous, however I'm all for teaching em to type by 5th grade or so.
But as for cursive.... I think to try to repeal that is akin to trying to get the fluoride out of our water.
That does not seem to have anything to do with the fact that almost nobody uses it, whether it is faster or not.