US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Republican former house speaker Newt Gingrich, and the outspoken Democratic Reverend Al Sharpton have joined forces in pursuit of changing US public education.
“I looked at this achievement gap which is almost identical to 1954 the year when I was born,” says Rev. Sharpton. “If this means that we need to get together and make alliances to deal with the fact that almost half the young people in my community are not even getting a high school diploma, I think the president is right to challenge us to go beyond our comfort zones.”
When asked about party politics of this unusual party of three, Gingrich says:
“In a time when we have a democratic president who has the courage to say take on the establishment of education and is prepared to say that every state should adopt dramatic bold reforms I think our children deserve to see us come together to put their future above partisanship and get this solved.”
Rev. Sharpton acknowledges that both parties have failed, as has the union, and even parents.
“The problem is that we have all stayed within our battle lines, and the kids have suffered,” says the Reverend.
“What makes great education is the adults. Student achievement is the purpose of education. We need to begin focusing on outcomes, not inputs,” adds Education Secretary Duncan. “ At the end of the day we want dramatically better outcomes”
Secretary Duncan would also like to add the Department of Education to the list of responsible parties for the tattered state of US Education.
“The Department of Education has been a part of the problem,” says the secretary. “We’ve been this big historical compliance driven bureaucracy. We’re trying to move from that and become this engine of innovation and to invest in what works.”
What do these three leaders say works?
Although these three individuals have different views on some education topics, they all support high performing charter schools.
More Information
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Comments
It's great to finally have Democrats that will be open-minded and see the wonderful alternatives there are to our failing traditional public school system.
For every high performing charter school in the inner city there are several schools filled with poor, at-risk students with behavior problems that the charter school took a pass on. At the public inner city middle school where I teach we just got 10 kids last week that had just been kicked out of their charter schools. Once the charter schools have these kids counted they boot them out the door. It's the same with every suposed alternative" to public schools. Harlem Academy, Fredrick Douglas, Green Dot . .etc, they kick out or refuse to admit the real problem kids and then look down their noses at those of us fighting for the students they have left behind. What would these charter schools do if they did not have public schools upon which to dump their problems?
Dear commenter,
Not sure which charter you are saying kicked out 10 kids last week, so I can't even comment specifically. What I can tell you is that charter schools are public schools and can usually exercise the same type of disciplines other public schools can--including suspending and expelling. With that said, there are areas across the country (like Detroit MI) where the neighborhood public schools can ask students to leave, and charters have been created to pick up these kids.
Mike Klonsky, education commentator: "Gingrich wasn't telling us the whole story. While Mastery students did well in some subject areas like reading, they scored low and the school failed to make AYP in others (math). Rather Newt was using Mastery to push his own political agenda--not fair to Mastery and not fair to the neighborhood schools against which Mastery is being pitted.
It doesn't appear for example, that Mastery operates under the same rules or conditions as did its predecessor. And they don't exactly teach all the "same kids." For one thing, Mastery admits only those students whose parents are willing and able to sign a contract. Then prospective students are made to attend a pre-enrollment meeting. Mastery says the meeting isn't evaluative. But right there you eliminate all those students without active parents or those intimidated by the process or who question Mastery's program or school curriculum."
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