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FOUR WHO ARE GIVING OUR TOWN A LESSON IN the new CIVICS, RETOOLING THE SCHOOL SYSTEM, REMAPPING THE INDIE MUSIC SCENE AND OFFERING HOPE TO THE HOMELESS. CATHERINE D. ANSPON REPORTS. PORTRAITS JACK THOMPSON AND JENNY ANTILL. POLITICALLY CORRECT RANDALL MORTON — THE PROGRESSIVE FORUM When Randall Morton founded The Progressive Forum seven years ago, his first programming foreshadowed the wow factor of what was to come: Robert Kennedy Jr., introduced by then-Mayor Bill White at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in June 2005. A rapt, nearcapacity crowd at Sarofim Hall listened to an impassioned Kennedy address "Our Environmental Challenges," followed by a post-lecture book signing where hundreds queued up for the guest of honor to inscribe copies of his Crimes Against Nature. Another big night followed in June 2006, when Al Gore spearheaded the American debut of his bellwether best seller An Inconvenient Truth with a talk and book signing organized by The Progressive Forum, once again at the Hobby Center. Improbably, Morton's road to found The Progressive Forum actually led through the oil patch. The Georgetown grad/one-time political speechwriter directed an eponymous marketing/PR company for decades that focused on the oil industry's heavyequipment companies. His experience establishing The Oilfield Breakfast Forum segued into launching The Progressive Forum after seeing RFK Jr. on Larry King Live and his disappointment over the 2004 national elections. As Morton underscores, "I'm confident we're making an impact." Flash forward dozens of speakers later, and you'll find Progressive Forum audiences reaching 2,000 per engagement to hear voices of our age from Gloria Steinem to Ken Burns. The Forum has clearly lived up to its motto ("Great minds, great answers"), as well as its lofty goal of "advancing ... the individual, our species and life on the planet." Indeed, The Progressive Forum has made the greatest contribution to environmental issues — witness one of the most intriguing evenings ever, when Robert Redford and then Shell Oil president John Hofmeister shared the Wortham stage with ranchers and environmentalists to dish about coal mining in Texas as the film Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars screened. Stay tuned for 2012 headliners including rock-star architect of sustainability William McDonough (Tuesday, April 24, a the Wortham). FATHER OF EDUCATION Randall Morton A decaying, abandoned school building in Houston's gritty Southeast side and a young cowboy-boot-wearing priest might seem an unlikely stage and protagonist to reform Houston's secondary-school system. Yet this script is successfully performed every day at Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School. At its helm is the dynamic Fr. TJ Martinez, founding president of Houston's Cristo Rey, which is part of a national network of innovative Catholic high schools offering promise — and rigorous college prep — to the kids of urban America. In Houston, the Cristo Rey campus near Hobby Airport revived a Catholic high school that had closed due to shifting demographics and declining enrollment. Enter the recently ordained Fr. Martinez, a Boston transplant raised in South Texas who was tapped after receiving his Harvard degree not only to lead, but to forge the Houston branch. The campus opened in August 2009, with its first class set to graduate in May 2013. It currently serves 270 students culled from the Woodlands to Needville, and is set to enroll grades 9 through 12 in the fall of 2012. The new school "relies on the private sector, not the government, to educate Houston's youth who are living in poverty," Martinez says. At the heart of Cristo Rey's model are high-powered corporations — energy to finance, ConocoPhillips to Deutsche Bank — which pay the students' tuition as part of an intriguing work-study program: Each Cristo Rey kid is employed one day a week by his or her sponsoring firm throughout the school year. The community has embraced the new college prep's vision, with a lead gift of one million dollars from the Kinder Foundation and an inaugural gala in January 2011 that raised an astounding $1.6 million. Fr. TJ Martinez FR. TJ MARTINEZ — CRISTO REY APRIL | PAGE 52 | 2012