Progressive Business Leaders Hail Education Reform Package as "Innovation to Benefit All Students"

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090917006052/en

BOSTON--(Business Wire)--
The Progressive Business Leaders Network (PBLN) hailed the education reform
package going before a Committee of the Massachusetts legislature today as
"innovation for all students."

PBLN President Thomas D. Dretler, President & CEO, Eduventures, Inc. and PBLN
Executive Director James F. Boyle, President & CEO, Sustainability Roundtable,
Inc. said, "We believe that the business community has an important role to play
in addressing complex social sector issues. And we are committed to empowering
innovative thinkers and education entrepreneurs to create new possibilities for
the children of the Commonwealth."

The PBLN Statement entitled "Innovation to Benefit All Students" reads in part:

"The Readiness proposal reflects a commitment to the students, teachers and
administrators of our local school districts and to the schools and children
most in need of our attention because of the challenges facing the most
underperforming schools."

Also offering strong support for the provisions concerning charter schools, the
PBLN statement reads:

"It is easy to get excited about the results in some charter schools. PBLN
believes it is equally important that as they grow as a percentage of total
number of students enrolled, charter schools be required to reach out to and
include students and populations that have been under-represented in the past.
We are encouraged to see these ideas reflected in the proposed legislation."

The PBLN statement represents the point of view of the Progressive Business
Leaders Network (PBLN) and of the following individual PBLN members (list in
formation-check back for more names):

David Belluck, General Partner, Riverside Partners
Joshua Boger, Ph.D., Founder and CEO (retired), Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
James F. Boyle, President & CEO, Sustainability Roundtable, Inc.
Howard Brick, COO and Director, Panel Intelligence LLC
Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Partners
Jon Carson, CEO, cMarket/BiddingForGood
Bob Crowe, Co-Managing Partner, Nelson Mullins
Thomas D. Dretler, President & CEO, Eduventures, Inc.
Philip Edmundson, President & CEO, William Gallagher Associates, Inc.
Paul Egerman, Co-founder and former CEO, eScription, Inc.
Norman W. Gorin, Wellesley, MA
Diane Hessan, President & CEO, Communispace Corp.
Janet Kraus, CEO, Spire
Gloria Cordes Larson, President, Bentley University
Sandy Lish, Principal & Co-Founder, The Castle Group
Jack Manning, President & CEO, Boston Capital Corporation
Thomas N. O`Brien, Managing Director, JPI Northeast
Paul Sagan, President & CEO, Akamai Technologies
Andrea Silbert, President, EOS Foundation
Mitchell G. Tyson, CEO & Director, Advanced Electron Beams
James J. Vanecko, Ph.D., Senior Business Development Consultant, Attivio
Gerardo Villacres, Managing Partner, Ultra Linx Marketing Group LLC
(list in formation)

PBLN is a non-profit peer-to-peer learning network committed to socially and
environmentally responsible economic growth and the public policies that advance
it. Register for our October 23rd PBLN Summit at the John F. Kennedy Library on
"Business Leadership and Public Policy: Inventing a More Sustainable Economy" or
to learn more, see www.pbln.org.

The Castle Group
Mark O`Toole, 617-337-9535
motoole@thecastlegrp.com
or
Andrew Tarsy, 617-515-9004
atarsy@gmail.com

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