Political odd-fellows on school reform

It might be the only subject that could draw all of them to a White House meeting, but the oddest of political bedfellows met with President Obama today on education reform.

Civil rights firebrand the Rev. Al Sharpton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich (a sometime Obama critic) huddled with the president.

After what he called an upbeat meeting that also included Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Sharpton told reporters "we have a crisis of inequality" in US education a half century after Brown v. Board of Education.

"There must be a commitment in this country to equal education," Sharpton said. "There can be no sacred cows."

He said the president recognizes wide differences in opinions and politics on the issue, but said that Obama is uniquely equipped to bring people together for a consensus.

"I think this is an issue that should bring all Americans together," Gingrich said, saying that education should be a civil rights issue for the 21st century.

Sharpton, who requested the meeting, formed a national education reform group last year with New York schools chief Joel Klein to close the "achievement gap" between black and white students.

Bloomberg and Klein, his hand-picked schools chancellor, have tried to overhaul New York's schools, including starting more public charter schools.

"President Obama hit the mark earlier this week when he said that economic progress and educational achievement are linked,” Bloomberg said in a recent statement. "In New York we know that the students of today are the workforce of tomorrow. This is why we challenged the status quo on education in New York City, which for decades was a broken public school system. Today, we offer parents more choices, hold schools accountable for results, and reward excellence. It’s working—our students are doing better in reading and math, and graduation rates are at historic highs."

Gingrich has been more critical of the nation's public schools and warns that US education is falling behind the rest of the world.

"We need to rethink from the ground up," he said, at a conference in Minneapolis last fall.

He also noted a quarter century has passed and much effort has been expended since the 1983 report "A Nation at Risk," which first warned of the shortcomings.