Philadelphia Inquirer
September 28, 2009
By Robert Enlow

Tomorrow in Philadelphia, two of politics' most interesting personalities - the Rev. Al Sharpton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich - are expected to join Education Secretary Arne Duncan in kicking off a tour of America's urban public schools. Sharpton and Gingrich have said they intend to draw attention to persistent problems and promising remedies in education.

In putting the spotlight on fixing education, this odd couple plus one should focus on reforms that actually have a shot at helping kids. The trio should use its bipartisan bully pulpit to focus on the one reform that can truly shake up public education: school choice.

Since "A Nation at Risk," the landmark 1983 report to Ronald Reagan on the state of American education, the United States has continued to see high rates of adult illiteracy, a lack of educational progress relative to other nations, and a remarkable increase in taxpayer funding for public schools. From 1970 to 2003, average per-student spending in American schools soared 128 percent, yet student achievement did not rise in tandem. Despite huge increases in spending, 17-year-olds' performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress did not improve during that period.

Children stuck in schools with a high incidence of violence and generations of academic failure don't have years to wait for a rescue mission, and that includes Philadelphia's. Each year lost is another class drifting at sea - dropouts who wind up with lower incomes, early pregnancies, drug and alcohol addictions, and prison sentences. Educators have a moral obligation to offer children hope. They must provide an education that will give them a shot at a job and earning potential.

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