The Best School

Last night I was invited by the Education Equality Project to a screening of 2 Million Minutes, The 21st Century Solution and it was a really great night.

First, the film is about The Basis Schools. I have blogged about Basis before and had the honor of touring this school and meeting with the founders. These schools are so amazing and deliver such incredible curriculum that we should have a thousand more of these schools. If we did, we would regain our position amongst the educational leaders of the world – and that is not an exaggeration. Sadly, the don't fit the "foundation" mold for receiving funding (not unlike ABCTE), so they cannot expand. Which is odd, because I thought the point of funding education innovation was to fund groups that don't fit the mold. Irony - pretty ironic sometimes.

It was great so see so many education reform groups out to support this great work. The capstone was pretty great as well. We had the Reverand Al Sharpton and Speaker Newt Gingrich speak after the film. They are traveling the country, at the request of President Obama, raising awareness of how bad the achievement gap really is in this country. It is humorous and moving to see two people so diametrically opposed in opinion come together for such a great cause.

If you have a chance to see the movie and see Sharpton and Gingrich together, it will make you work harder for educational reform in this country.