Mr. Sharpton appeared along with Mr. Gingrich, Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at the forum, which was sponsored by American Solutions for Winning the Future, a non-partisan organization chaired by Mr. Gingrich.

Mr. Sharpton said "there's no greater civil rights in America today than education reform," and called on elected officials to put party differences aside to come up with a solution. He spoke of being raised by a single mother, but said she was never so poor that she didn't make him do homework at night.

"Children must be the priority," he said in a 15-minute speech that was interrupted by applause four times. "We must not get to other interests first and then get to the children after we've protected various interests and concerns."

Mr. Sharpton spoke of his work co-chairing the non-partisan Education Equality Project with New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and said one of things that surprised him was that people enter into the education reform discussion to "protect themselves rather than to educate and upgrade the children."

He had harsh words for teachers' unions, which he said have blocked efforts to judge instructors based on performance.

"Yes, I support teachers, yes I work with teachers' unions, but we can't have any sacred cows in the room when our children are behind in math and science, when I go to Detroit and only 32% of the young black men are graduating high school."

Before the room broke out into a rendition of Kumbaya, Mr. Sharpton brought the audience back to reality.

"I do have a syndicated radio show," he said. "If you want a fair and balanced view of your convention, you can listen."

And even that line brought another round of applause. After posing for photos with Mr. Gingrich and the other speakers, it took Mr. Sharpton 10 minutes to walk through a throng of fans who wanted their photos taken with the reverend.