Groups Scramble To Round Up Celebrity Spokespeople
News reports suggest that last week's announcement that the National Charter Schools Conference celebrity figurehead was supermodel Petra Nemcova has created a scramble to secure celebrity representatives among various education groups, organizations, and causes.
Some of the rumored matchups are as follows: Title I Comparability (Justin Timberlake), Class size reduction (Angelina Jolie), National Standards (Scarlett Johannson), Merit Pay (David Beckham), NCLB Rollback (Robert Downey, Jr.), Homeschooling (Will Smith), Universal preschool (David Letterman).
Not to be outdone, several education groups are also pursuing celebrity endorsements: Gates Foundation (Sarah Jessica Parker), Reading First (Tiger Woods), Teach For America (Shia Labeouf), EDINO8 (Tom Cruise), and KIPP (Jon Stewart),
If there are any I've missed or that could be improved upon (depending on availability), feel free to weigh in.
Cute concept, Alexander. But Petra isn't a "spokesperson" for charters. After surviving the tsumani two years ago she founded and heads the Happy Hearts Foundation, which raises and then distributes aid to children in distressed areas - -some impacted by natural disasters, others by war and famine. She came to our conference and made a brief, gracious speech - -and then donated $100K in computers to a charter school here in New Orleans. OK, she's gorgeous and famous, but a lot more, and our 3200 attendees were charmed and impressed by her. This is someone who turned a tragedy into an opportunity to do a lot of good - -and we were delighted to welcome her.
Nelson Smith
Posted by: Nelson Smith | June 25, 2008 at 13:23 PM