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Al Sharpton Meets With Obama to Improve Education

Written by News One on May 7, 2009 6:44 pm

President Barack Obama on Thursday discussed ways to improve the education system with the unlikely political trio of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Rev. Al Sharpton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The independent mayor, the liberal Democrat and community activist, and the conservative former Republican congressman said their partnership shows that the issue cuts across political and ideological lines.

Improving the education system is a top issue for Obama. He maintains that students who do better in school will help themselves in an economy that’s becoming more dependent on high-skilled jobs, and that the nation will benefit in the long run, too.

Watch Sharpton Speak at the White House

Sharpton said they talked about inequalities in education that persist decades after the Supreme Court declared separate but equal schools unconstitutional with its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

“We have a crisis of inequality in this country,” Sharpton said after the Oval Office meeting with Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “Fifty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education there’s still a difference in how students get up in the morning and go to school.”

Sharpton said that in some cities more than half of all black teens have no high school diploma.

Gingrich said he’ll work with anyone who commits to “putting children first, putting learning first and getting the job done in the next two or three years” and not talking about the issue for decades more to come.

Bloomberg, who is running for a third term, has been working with Sharpton and New York Schools chief Joel Klein to improve the performance of minority students in New York. The mayor, a Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-independent, said city test scores have improved seven years in a row, including for minorities.

Bloomberg said he suggested to Obama that the country follow New York’s lead.

“The results are there. We are going in the right direction and I tried to impress on the president that if the rest of the country wants to act to improve the performance of their school system, this, I think, is a blueprint for exactly what you can do,” Bloomberg said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said later that Obama “believes and will take steps to do what’s right to improve our education system, not based on any political ideology or any particular interest group.”

Tags: Barack Obama, Education, Rev. Al Sharpton, White House
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  • http://www.blackplanet.com/stupidfatandugly/ stupidfatandugly

    al sharpton finally realizes he needs to go back to school?

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/SILKTHESHAKUR/ SILKTHESHAKUR

    See, hear is a clear example of “coonism” at it’s finest. In this case as in others, it is Mr. Sharpton’s perception that we only move by our emotions and not our minds. For all you Al Sharpton supporters, forgive me for the SHARP words. You see, TRUE leaders are roadsigns and traffic signals, not crime scene investigators who show up AFTER the crash. They direct in such a way that they keep the flow of traffic smooth. Further, based upon EXPERIENCE, they reduce the likelihood for an accident to occur. Just like in Jenna, here we go again…being played like coons and bamas who don’t know any better. There is not a racial bone in my body because I am a REAL minister of the Gospel. However, my sharpest criticism for the world in which we live goes to my people; black folks, who are spending nearly 1 trillion dollars a year yet are experiencing the highest number of unemployment in this current economic situation which IS in part due to a lack of education. YOU NEED TO WAKE UP!!!

    For your information, it was reported as far back as 2006 that the system was broken and inherently evil to children of color. In fact, April 17, 2006
    Test scores of 1.9 million pupils, mostly minorities, were excluded so that failing schools could receive Title 1 money originally appropriated to facilitate an equal playing field and to sustain programs designed to close the gap between privileged and underprivileged children. WHY is he JUST NOW deciding to take up the cause?

    Just as in fiscal responsibility where there are guidelines to curb unnecessary spending, there should have been a fiscal responsibility to protect American tax dollars from actually causing more harm than good with this obviously well thought out plan to gouge the pockets of hard working citizens to enact a policy that has the same lasting implications and detrimental effects that slavery had.

    I applaud Mr. Sharpton’s efforts in addressing this issue but I also question his motives.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/VANITY666BONET/ VANITY666BONET

    yay Sharpton and such want to dumb down the school system even more because blks cant pass a test…YEA LETS DUMB DOWN THE TEST 4 ALL GROUPS BECAUSE A CERTAIN GROUP CANT PASS THEM RICH OR NOT

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/testpageBP/ testpageBP

    Good luck. Democrats have been anti-education for decades. They push a system where you can barely get rid of sucky teachers or give raises to teachers that deserve it.

    Besides, intelligent people ask too many questions. The liberal political system would crumble… lol. No intelligence allowed :)

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/mesh23222/ mesh23222

    SILK THE SHAKUR
    THAT YOU FOR THAT ELOQUENT STATEMENT YOU ARE SO RIGHT I AGREE 100% BECAUSE WE WILL NEVER GET ANYWHERE AS A PEOPLE ACTING LIKE COONS AND BAMAS. BUT IF YOU KEEP A PEOPLE DOWN FOR YRS YOU LEARN TO FEAR EVERYTHING….WHY DO YOU THINK WHITE FOLKS ARE SO AHEAD IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TEST SCORES HE HAS TO DO WITH THEM HAVING NO FEAR TO TRY…AND OUR COMMUNITY IS FILLED WITH FEAR. SINCE OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY. I THINK PEOPLE ARE STILL IN SHOCK ABOUT THE ELECTION THAT THEY THINK IT’S A DREAM LIKE IT’S NOT REAL. TILL THIS DAY BLACK PEOPLE STILL DONT KNOW THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HIM BECOME PRESIDENT. YOU CAN NOT DENY THAT FOR YEARS THE GOVERNMENT HAVE BEEN OPPRESSING FOREVER…TIME TO MOVE ON FROM THIS ALL OF US

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