Here was the response I received today from NBC. I have removed the name of the person that sent it (No it wasn’t straight from Brian Williams):
Hi Brian,
Thank you for reaching out to Education Nation-we appreciate your interest in the event and improving education in our country. The Education Nation team is working very hard to make sure that teachers, students, and parents are represented at the summit. As you already know, MSNBC will be airing a live Teacher Town Hall on Sunday, September 26th where teachers will be able to express their views and opinions in a teacher-only environment. We have chosen to air the Teacher Town hall on Sunday, instead of a weekday, so that real teachers can watch and participate. Note that this is one of only a few events that NBC will be airing live and in its entirety. In addition to the teacher voice, we are working hard to include students and parents in the summit. There will be an entire panel dedicated to discussing the importance of parents and the community in improving our education systems.
We will continue to work hard to involve these very important voices at Education Nation. We hope you will tune in to NBC News to watch the summit, stop by and visit the Learning Plaza if you are in the area, and check out EducationNation.com to learn more about the summit and get involved in the online discussions happening there. Thanks again for getting in touch!
NBC News Education Nation
Teachers get their voice on Sunday at noon on MSNBC, which normally shows infomercials and prison documentaries in the time period and numbers ratings in the hundreds of thousands.
The two-day “summit” starring a long list of politicians, business people, NBC media personalities, and other education “experts” will be featured on NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and other high profile prime time programs throughout the week. Yeah, that’s equivalent.
Thanks for posting the response from NBC. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from this project.