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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
Reverend A.R. Bernard, Christian Cultural Center Senior Pastorr
Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Mayor
Jeb Bush, Former Governor of Florida
Cory A. Booker, Newark, NJ Mayor
Reverend David Brawley, St. Paul Community Baptist Church Associate Pastor
Michael Casserly, Council of the Great City Schools, Executive Director
Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children's Zone President and CEO
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 Senior Deputy Superintendent and Former New York City Schools Chancellor
Arne Duncan, Chicago Public Schools CEOO
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
Terry Grier Ed.D., San Diego Unified School District Superintendent
Peter Groff, Colorado Senate President
David Harris, The Mind Trust President and CEO
Kati Haycock, The Education Trust President
John Hickenlooper, Denver Mayor
Kevin Johnson, St. HOPE Public Schools Founder
Jason Kamras, 2005 National Teacher of the Year & D.C. Public Schools Director of Human Capital Strategy
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
Dannel Malloy, Stamford, CT Mayor
John McCain, Arizona Senator
Rev. James Meeks,
Janet Murguía, National Council of La Raza (NCLR) President and CEO
James Mtume, KISS FM Radio "Open Line" Host
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
Nelson Smith, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President
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
Kate Walsh, National Council on Teacher Quality President
Joe Williams, Democrats for Education Reform Executive Director
J.C. Watts, Jr., Strong American Schools - ED in '08 National Spokesman
Roger Wilkins, Civil rights leader, professor of history, and journalist
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.
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."