08 Nov 2012
We want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers.
President Barack Obama
Election victory speech
November 7, 2012
In his victory speech Tuesday night President Obama reached out to the country to help him make the next four years a time of renewal and reaffirmation. There is no better place to launch such a shared mission than a complete, uncompromising, and unequivocal commitment to transforming our urban public schools into 21st century oases of learning and opportunity.
Equality of educational opportunity is the civil rights issue of our era. Allowing over a million students a year to drop out of high school before graduation is a sign of bad faith, straining the social contract to a near breaking point.
We have strong evidence that we can fix urban schools. Recently, the Council of Great City Schools and Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation released a study calledFoundations for Success that clearly identifies effective improvement strategies used in innovative urban districts. These include a focus on student achievement, accountability systems, allocating additional resources to the lowest performing schools, district wide