Who is funding the Education Equity project?

David Cantor, Press Secretary of the NYC DOE emailed our NYC education news list serv this morning to say that our previous posting was wrong, and that "No Gates or Broad money is going to this initiative. Zero."

This begs the question who is. We have asked Cantor to tell us who is funding this effort, which will likely cost a bundle -- even renting the National Press Club for the kick-off event couldn't have been cheap.

According to USA Today, “Neither Sharpton nor Klein offered details on the Education Equality Project, but said they sent letters to both presidential candidates Wednesday and plan to stage events at both political conventions.”

Cantor himself is listed as the lead of the two spokespersons on the official press release, suggesting that those who say that the DOE's inflated press office does not have enough work to justify its size and expense are correct.

So is this campaign coming out of our taxpayer money? In the midst of an economic slowdown so dire that the Mayor says he is forced to cut all city agencies, including education by $450 million? And/or is this project being subsidized by Bloomberg himself?

We will continue to look into this mystery and if we get any answers we get will let you know. If you have a clue, post in the comments section or if you prefer, send me an email off-line at classsizematters@gmail.com