Sharpton, Gingrich to be on same side

Three unlikely allies are bringing their road show to Philadelphia next month.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will embark on a national education tour to call attention to the Obama administration's attempt to make changes in public education, the trio announced yesterday.

Their first stop? Philadelphia, on Sept. 29, where they will tour schools, and meet with parents, teachers, business leaders, and others.

Duncan said the city was an easy pick.

"I think Philadelphia is a city that has made some significant progress, but has a long way to go," he said at a news conference.

This week, the district announced its seventh year of growth on state test scores. But although scores in reading and math were up, fewer than half of city schoolchildren can read at grade level, and only slightly more can perform math on grade level.

If the district continues its slow progress, it will take until 2123 for all students to reach proficiency, officials say. The federal No Child Left Behind law calls for that to happen by 2014.

Duncan praised Superintendent Arlene Ackerman for "doing a wonderful job of pushing a reform agenda."

In a conversation this year, Duncan said, Ackerman was candid "about the huge challenges still facing the children of Philadelphia," challenges that are common to many urban districts, the secretary said.

In an interview yesterday, Ackerman said she had invited Duncan to visit Philadelphia when they spoke in the spring, so she was thrilled to get the call from Washington about the visit.

"It just confirms and echoes that we're on the right track here in the kinds of reforms that we're trying to put in place, in the kind of initiatives in Imagine 2014," she said.

Imagine 2014, Ackerman's five-year strategic plan, calls for a series of changes, the most controversial of which includes shutting failing traditional public schools and converting them into charters or schools run by management companies.

No agenda has been set for the visit, Ackerman said.

The other known stops are New Orleans and Baltimore. Other locations also will be added, officials said.

Sharpton said the tour came about after he and Gingrich - an architect of the Republican Party's 1994 "Contract With America" - realized that although they have tremendous political differences, they agree on the need for education reform. When the two went to the White House to meet with the president, Obama "said at one point during that meeting, 'You guys, together, coming out, could really put a lot of focus on this issue,' " Sharpton said.

"We cannot continue to do the same things and get different results," Sharpton said. "We may disagree on everything else . . . but we agree that we need reform."

Gingrich said he hoped to focus attention on charter schools. He wants strengthening charter laws on the books in all 50 states, he said.

Sharpton said he hoped to issue a call to action for all parents. He said he is outraged by schools of 4,000 students where only 10 parents show up to a PTA meeting.

"If they don't make a major investment in what's going on in education, it won't work," said Sharpton. "We're going to have to talk to them straight and with no holds barred."