School, community leaders to meet at education summit
BY ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
Sunday, January 06, 2013
1/06/13 at 5:49 AM
An education summit set for Wednesday will bring together Tulsa-area educators and government officials with leaders of local chambers of commerce, churches and nonprofit organizations to discuss communitywide dropout prevention strategies.
Jonah Edelman, founder and chief executive officer of Stand for Children, will be the keynote speaker at the event hosted by the Tulsa Regional Chamber and sponsored by State Farm.
"Kids who don't finish high school will not be able to get a job that has a sustainable wage. So it's important to Tulsa that we keep every child in school through graduation," said Susan Harris, senior vice president of education and workforce at the Tulsa Regional Chamber.
The summit is set for 8:30-10:30 a.m. in Room 150 at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Attendance is open to the public and admission is free.
Stand for Children is a multi-state, political advocacy organization committed to improving public schools for all American children. The organization's founding rally in Washington, D.C., was attended by more than 300,000 people. Edelman was also named a top education activist by Time.com in 2011.
His organization recently expanded into Oklahoma, citing the fact that only seven out of 10 students who enter high school graduate on time, with 40 percent of college freshmen needing remedial courses, as "a persistent issue that poses a grave economic challenge to American prosperity and productivity in Oklahoma."
Former Tulsa school board President Brian Hunt was recently named executive director of Stand for Children-Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Legislature in recent years has enacted a variety of legislation with the goal of graduating more students from high school prepared for college, including third-grade reading reform, high-school exit exams and the adoption of higher academic standards for all students.
But Stand for Children-Oklahoma's 2013 advocacy goal is to ensure that all public school districts have the funding, support and information necessary to implement those reforms with fidelity.
Original Print Headline: Education summit set Wednesday
Andrea Eger 918-581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com
