Education is 'civil-rights issue of our generation,' Cabinet official tells NAACP
“The only way to achieve equality in society is to achieve it in the classroom,” Duncan told NAACP delegates meeting in Kansas City for the group’s annual convention.
“This is not just a moral obligation; it is our economic imperative,” he said. “Everyone has a responsibility. Everyone can step up. Education is our national mission. Education is our best hope.”
He said community leaders “must be at the table when decisions are made about how to improve struggling schools.”
The Obama administration is making $4 billion available to improve the worst-performing 5 percent of schools in the country, Duncan said.
“But what our resources cannot buy is courage,” he said.
Rudy Crew, professor of clinical education at the University of Southern California and president of Global Partnership Schools, said struggling schools can’t be corrected with money alone.
“If people don’t know what to do with the money they already have, I don’t know what they are going to do with the money they are going to get,” said Crew, who
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