Some still don't quite know what to make of the Education Equality Project, or EEP. When it was launched in 2008, we assumed it was another "reformer" group preparing to ride the Obama wave. Then we had the strange bedfellows experiment of Rev. Al Sharpton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich the "faces" of EEP, showing EdSec Arne Duncan some of the major issues facing urban education. Along the way, we've had the logical "comparison" to the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education and then the partnerships with Education Trust, Democrats for Education Reform, and Center for American Progress on critiques of Race to the Top and other federal ideas. And Eduflack even remembers a time last year when critics were saying EEP was closing shop, having run out of funding and "accomplished" its goal but getting like-minded reformers in the Duncan regime.Today, though, we see that the work has just begun. This morning, EEP announced three new co-chairpersons for the organization. The Reverend Al era is over. As of today, EEP is now co-led by NYCDOE Chancellor Joel Klein (a founder of EEP), UNCF President and CEO Michael L. Lomax, and Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza. (And, of course, the workhorse Ellen Winn remains as director of the organization.)
