From: New York
Date sent: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 12:12:07 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Fwd: [Fwd: Fwd: Jesse Jackson launches U.S. education initiative]

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Forwarded message:

From: forusjf@ix.netcom.com (usjf)

[Del.]

CHICAGO (Reuter) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Tuesday that he and a group of educators will launch an effort designed to close the learning gap between black and white children.

The initiative will seek pledges from at least 40,000 black parents to meet their childrens' teachers, exchange home telephone numbers, promise to turn off the home TV set for three hours each night and go to school to pick up report cards in person, among other things.

``We know teachers treat children differently when they know their parents,'' he said.

Jackson said he would also like church leaders to meet with juvenile judges to find ways to educate young people in jail, perhaps by turning churches into learning centers.

In a conference call to reporters in which he was joined by school officials from Baltimore and Atlanta as well as representatives of teacher groups, Jackson said he hoped to turn the recent debate about the teaching of idiomatic ``black English'' into a look at the broader problem.

Except for that debate, he said, there has been almost no focus on such things as crumbling inner-city infrastructures, high drop-out rates and disparate levels of property tax-based funding between poor neighborhoods and wealthy suburbs.

He said representatives from as many as 45 cities may take part in the initial meetings in Chicago next week.