About Us

Mission Statement

The Education Equality Project is a non-partisan group of elected officials, civil rights leaders, and education reformers that has formed to help ensure that America finally brings equity to an educational system that, 54 years since Brown v. Board of Education, continues to fail its highest needs students. The project will take on conventional wisdom and the entrenched impediments to real reform, focusing on teacher quality and pay; accountability for results; and maximizing parents’ options. It will also challenge politicians, public officials, educators, union leaders, and anybody else who stands in the way of necessary change. This means challenging laws and contracts that preserve a system that fails students. The one measure of every policy, regardless of the depths of its historic roots or the power of its adherents, must be whether it advances student learning.

Signatories

Dr. Arlene Ackerman, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent

Andres A. Alonso, Baltimore City Public Schools CEO

Michael Bennet, U.S. Senate, Colorado and former Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools

Reverend A.R. Bernard, Christian Cultural Center Senior Pastor

Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Mayor

Tom Boasberg, Denver Public Schools Superintendent 

Cory A. Booker, Newark, NJ Mayor

Reverend David Brawley, St. Paul Community Baptist Church Associate Pastor

David L. Brewer III, Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent

Eli Broad, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation Founder

Jeb Bush, Former Governor of Florida

Michael Casserly, Council of the Great City Schools Executive Director

Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children’s Zone President and CEO

Marlene Canter, LAUSD School Board member

Victor Capellan, Dominican American National Roundtable (DANR) President

Meria Carstarphen Ed.D., St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent

Kevin P. Chavous, attorney, author, and national school reform leader

Stacey Childress, Harvard Business School lecturer

Henry Cisneros, Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Former Mayor of San Antonio

Anthony J. Colón, Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (HCREO) President

Ramon Cortines, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent and Former New York City Schools Chancellor

Richard M. Daley, Chicago Mayor

Marc Ecko, Marc Ecko Enterprises Founder and Chief Creative Officer

Adrian M. Fenty, Washington, DC Mayor

Harold E. Ford, Jr., Democratic Leadership Council Chairman

Howard Fuller, Former Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent, Education Professor and Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University

Newt Gingrich, American Solutions for Winning the Future General Chairman

Deborah A. Gist, DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education Superintendent

Terry Grier Ed.D., San Diego Unified School District Superintendent

Peter Groff, Colorado Senate President

Dr. Beverly L. Hall, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent

Phil Handy, Florida Board of Education, Former Chair

David Harris, The Mind Trust President and CEO

Kati Haycock,  The Education Trust President

John Hickenlooper, Denver Mayor

Jim Hunt, Former Governor of North Carolina

Walter Isaacson, Aspen Institute, President and CEO

Kevin Johnson, Sacramento Mayor and St. HOPE Public Schools Founder

Jason Kamras, 2005 National Teacher of the Year & D.C. Public Schools Director of Human Capital Strategy

Lisa Graham Keegan, former Arizona State Superintendent of Schools

Joel I. Klein, New York City Schools Chancellor, Education Equality Project Co-chairman

Marc Lampkin, Strong American Schools - ED in ‘08 Executive Director

Ernest A. Logan, Council of Schools Supervisors & Administrators President

Michael L. Lomax, UNCF—United Negro College Fund President and CEO

Dannel Malloy, Stamford, CT Mayor

John McCain, Arizona Senator

Rev. James Meeks, Illinois State Senator & Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Chairman

James Mtume, KISS FM Radio “Open Line” Host

Janet Murguía,  National Council of La Raza (NCLR) President and CEO

Michael Nutter, Philadelphia Mayor

Brian G. Osborne, School District of South Orange & Maplewood Superintendent

Paul G. Pastorek, Louisiana State Department of Education Superintendent

Bart Peterson, Former Mayor of Indianapolis

Dianne Piché,  Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights Executive Director

Charles B. Reed, The California State University Chancellor

Michelle Rhee, Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor

The Honorable Roy Romer, Strong American Schools - ED in ‘08 Chairman

Andrew Rotherham, Education Sector Co-founder and Co-director

Abelardo Saavedra Ph.D., Houston Independent School District Superintendent

Reverend Al Sharpton, National Action Network President, Education Equality Project Co-chairman

Eric Smith, Florida Department of Education, Commissioner; Former Superintendent, Charlotte Mecklenburg, NC

Nelson Smith, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President

Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education

Dr. Joshua P. Starr, Stamford Public Schools Superintendent

Bill Taylor, Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights Chair and civil rights lawyer

Paul Vallas, New Orleans Recovery School District Superintendent

Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Los Angeles Mayor

Kate Walsh, National Council on Teacher Quality President

J.C. Watts, Jr., Strong American Schools - ED in ‘08 National Spokesman

Roger Wilkins, Civil rights leader, professor of history, and journalist

Joe Williams, Democrats for Education Reform Executive Director

About Co-Chairman Al Sharpton

Reverend Al Sharpton

Reverend Al Sharpton, is the President of the National Action Network (NAN), and one of America’s most-renowned civil rights leaders. Whether it was his noteworthy Presidential run as a United States Democratic candidate in 2004, or his compelling speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Reverend Sharpton has had an irrefutable impact on national politics because of his strong commitment to equality and progressive politics. In April of 2001, Coretta Scott King hailed him as “a voice for the oppressed, a leader who has protested injustice with a passionate and unrelenting commitment to nonviolent action in the spirit and tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.” In February 2007, Rev. Sharpton was called “the most prominent civil rights activist in the nation” by the New York Daily News.

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About Co-Chairman Joel I. Klein

Chancellor Joel I. Klein

Joel I. Klein became New York City schools chancellor in July 2002 after serving in the highest levels of government and business. As Chancellor, he oversees more than 1,450 schools with over 1.1 million students, 136,000 employees, and a $15-billion operating budget. When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Mr. Klein, a native New Yorker, as the first Chancellor of the newly-reorganized Department of Education, he called the new Chancellor “a true leader who never shies away from the tough and sometimes controversial decisions that are necessary to implement change.”

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