Has School Reform Gone Bipartisan?

D.C. event offers bipartisan solutions to aid minority students
Monday, January 26th 2009

One of the most important yet least noticed rallies in Washington during Barack Obama's inauguration took place at Cardozo High School, a struggling inner-city school located not far from the steps of the U.S. Capitol where the chief justice swore in the nation's first African-American President.

The Martin Luther King Day rally at the run-down auditorium at Cardozo High drew a coalition of strange but influential bedfellows that spanned the political spectrum, from the civil rights firebrand Rev. Al Sharpton to GOP presidential candidate John McCain. All of the speakers, however, were united by a single cause: A determination to tackle the nation's last, great civil rights battle - the shameful achievement gap between minority and white students.

Despite its humble setting, the Cardozo rally helped mark a sea change in the battle to fix our ailing urban schools. It provided a remarkable and riveting piece of political theater that would have been all but unthinkable just a few years ago.

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