Kanye West & ED in 08: Part 2

I promised last Friday to report on Kanye West's concert to support ED in 08 and his own foundation's efforts to keep young people from dropping out of school.

Our own young people trickled back to Washington from Chicago yesterday and reported on what was, by all accounts, an exciting and entertaining event. (My thanks to the ED in 08 staff who worked hard on the event before they got a chance to party. I appreciate your hard work.)

Kanye showed a real commitment to our joint message throughout a long day Friday.


Early in the day, he taped a public service announcement. Here is what he said:

Becoming a music superstar took hard work but it also took a solid education.


Too many kids today are failing to get the education they need to succeed in college, a career or just life itself.


Half of Latino and African American students don't graduate high school.


Even students who graduate aren't being given the skills to get good jobs.


I'm doing something about that and you can too.


Join me and ED in ‘08 to make education a top national priority. Go to EDin08.com today.

During his sound check before the concert at the House of Blues, he answered questions from local school children.


After that, he joined his mother, Dr. Donda West, and my colleague, Marc Lampkin, at a press conference. He and his mother talked about the devastating dropout rate and the need for a greater focus on education.


At one point, I'm told, Kanye put forward this proposition: If someone went into your bank account and pulled out half of your money, wouldn't you notice? Of course you would. So why don't we notice or do anything about the fact that half of African American males do not graduate from high school?


That's well put, and a good question. I would add, And what are we going to do about it? It's the kind of question we need to put to all of the presidential candidates and expect to receive an answer.


They took a lot of pictures in Chicago, including one of our Rachel with former University of Florida basketball player and recent Chicago Bulls draftee, Joakim Noah, and Aaron, Rachel and Holly with Vanna White.