Some readers have suggested that I've been too pessimistic and that I should give Al Sharpton and other prominent civil rights activists/politicians more benefit of the doubt that they care enough about the nation's education crisis to push for significant change even if it means they have to bite the hand$ that have been feeding them for years and years.
They could be right. Perhaps there is a revolution in the making. It was remarkable, for example, to see Rep. Charlie Rangel on NY1's Inside City Hall program on Friday night. (For starters, it was great to see Rangel up and about after the mysterious illness which hospitalized him recently.) Something about thinking that you are close to death seems to sharpen your focus or something. Did you catch when he told Dominic Carter that our nation's graduation rate was a "national disaster"?????? Rangel lamented that 50% of black kids will never be able to understand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's dream because they are slipping through the cracks of crappy schools.
Sounds like it is time to lead. Rep. Rangel? Rep. Rangel?????
Even better are these signs that something is stirring.