Some 18-months ago we blogged about how honored we were to be present for the official declaration of “Brian Bennett Day” in San Diego by the City Council and Mayor Jerry Sanders. Bennett had been a front-line warrior in the fight to close the Opportunity Gap through four decades.
I called him a warrior’s warrior because that is what he was.
So I was extremely saddened to hear from one of our board members, Alan Bersin, over the weekend that Bennett had died after his courageous battle with ALS. I’ll post some of Alan’s comments below, after the jump, but going forward, we have decided to rename our Education Warrior Award the “Brian Bennett Education Warrior Award.” It just seems so fitting, and the next generation of education reformers has to remember the trailblazers.
The world just lost a great one.