A national coalition of black civil rights leaders, elected officials and educators are mobilizing to reform public school education and challenge presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain to work toward racial equality in America’s schools.

Called the Education Equality Project, the initiative is designed to brand public school education as the premier civil rights issue of the 21st century by urging educators and public officials to re-think how America educates students with special needs.

Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein are leading the project, and they hope others will embrace the idea.

"It will focus America's attention on its highest needs students, who -- 54 years after Brown v. Board of Education -- still receive far less educational opportunity and often struggle and fail in school," according to a statement.

"In the coming months, the project will seek to focus the presidential candidates on educational equality, hosting forums at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions," the statement read. "The founding members of the Project announced their new effort at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C."

Sharpton said public school education is about civil rights.

"An unprecedented coalition has come together to confront the racial disparities in education and address the issue of education as a new civil rights movement to bring equality to education in this country," Sharpton said in a statement. "We challenge both presidential candidates to recognize that we haven't come close to achieving racial equality in educational opportunity."

The effort grew out of conversations around the 40th anniversary last April of the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Kevin P. Chavous, attorney, author and national school reform leader, said education should be a front-burner issue.

"It is time that our leaders, especially those running for president, make the education of our children a real priority," Chavous told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "Policies and practices that benefit adults alone are unacceptable. Our nation's entire focus in education should be on that which helps children learn. I am excited that this new coalition will breathe new life into true education reform."

Peter C. Groff, a Colorado state senator, publisher of Blackpolicy.org, and the founder and executive director of the University of Denver Center for African American Policy, told BlackAmericaWeb.com  that there are a growing number of Democrats, many African-American, who are very concerned about the state of the public education system.

"Far too many black and brown students are dropping out, and many who don't are ill equipped to compete in the growing global marketplace," Groff said. "The situation calls for a dramatic and substantive conversation about a wholesale reform of K-12 education."

"Every education policy and conversation should begin and end with the question, 'Is it in the best educational interest of the child?' Hiking achievement, accountability and global preparation has to be the center piece of any meaningful education reform, and that reform must create a 21st century education system," he said.

The 15 people who have agreed to the Project's "principles" include Andres A. Alonso, Baltimore City Public Schools CEO; Cory A. Booker, Newark, New Jersey mayor; Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children's Zone president and CEO; Arne Duncan, Chicago Public Schools CEO; Joel I. Klein, New York City schools chancellor and Education Equality Project co-chairman; James Mtume, KISS-FM Radio "Open Line" host; Michelle Rhee, Washington, D.C. schools chancellor; Sharpton, National Action Network president, Education Equality Project co-chairman, and former Rep. J.C. Watts, Jr., the Strong American Schools – ED in '08 national spokesman.

"Nationally, our public education system is failing to provide our students with the skills they need to compete for the best jobs in the global workforce," Watts said in a statement.

"Too many of our students are not graduating from high school, and too many who do graduate are not prepared to face the challenges of college, the workplace or life," Watts said. "This crisis in education is destroying the foundation of our economic success and national prosperity. I am glad to join the bi-partisan coalition to sound the national alarm to improve our schools."

Rhee said the present system is failing the nation’s students.

"As a country, we cannot afford to protect a system that is failing," Rhee said in a statement. "It's time for our national leaders to start putting students front and center and start transforming our country's public schools."