Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success

EAST LANSING, Mich., (March 9, 2009) - A new report by David C. Berliner (co-author of The Manufactured Crisis and Collateral Damage), argues that out-of-school factors related to poverty are the major cause of the achievement gap that exists between poor and minority students and the rest of the student population. This is in direct contrast to current federal education policies that are based on the belief that public schools should shoulder the blame for lack of achievement on the part of impoverished students.

You can find the Executive Summary and the report here. We owe Dr. Berliner a debt of gratitude for his years of perseverance and dedication, working to expose the unrelenting and hypocritical scapegoating of America's besieged public schools. I urge you to disseminate this report as widely as possible on the Internet, to the media, to President Obama, Ed Secretary Arne Duncan, and members of Congress.

Susan Ohanian, another champion for children to whom we owe much, has provided a list of names and phone numbers of the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Let's act.