Michelle Rhee missed the mark in contributing to an informed debate about education reform with this Olympics-themed video, which features an overweight man floundering through a gymnastics routine and twirling ribbons to the jeers of an off-camera audience as a supposed metaphor for the state of our nation's education system. The video is wrong on so many levels, not the least of which is misunderstanding what truly ails our education system and the necessary steps to fix it.

The 2012 version of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual "KIDS COUNT Data Book" provides a wealth of information about the well-being of our nation's children, including state-by-state data on educational opportunities, economic security, access to healthcare and family and community environments. The report illustrates the deep disparities between children of color and their White peers and between children from wealthy and low-income families in access to the opportunities and supports necessary to succeed in school and in life. Overall, the report finds that a higher percentage of students of color are living in poverty, not attending preschool, not graduating on time and don't have health insurance compared to non-Hispanic White children.

Youth advocates from Lowell, MA, are leading the charge to lower the voting age in municipal elections to 17 so that current students can have a say in the education policies affecting them. With a bill in committee at the State House and an outpouring of support from advocacy groups and policymakers across the state, members of the Vote 17 Lowell campaign are closer than any group every before to winning a voice for 17-year-olds in local politics.

In the National OTL Campaign's first webinar, we explored the issue of education redlining, in which bad policies systematically deny certain communities the educational resources and opportunities they need to prepare their children for success in school and in life. Attendees learned how to identify disparities in resources in their local schools with the help of a variety of tools, and we discussed strategies for bringing their research to the attention of the local media, policymakers and advocacy groups. 

In a clear case of education redlining, a much smaller percentage of students of color in Fairfax County, VA, are identified as gifted compared to their white peers, meaning fewer are given access to the advanced programs and resources necessary to gain admission to prestigious schools. In response, The Coalition of the Slience, a local advocacy group, and the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education. 

In difficult economic times, we as a nation need to provide all children, especially those in struggling communities, with access to the opportunities and resources they need to succeed in school and in life. In a CNN op-ed, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Senior Pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, points to the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign's "2020 Vision Roadmap: A Pre-K Through Postsecondary Blueprint for Educational Success " as the systemic approach we need to reform our nation's education system and combat structural inequities.