BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- Conservative Newt Gingrich and liberal Al Sharpton agree. And, they are using that headline to draw attention to the problems with U.S. schools.

On Friday, the two political leaders spent the day with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visiting three schools in Baltimore, talking to students and educators about what makes schools better.

"Newt and I don't agree on anything ... tomorrow we won't even agree that we were here today," said civil rights leader Sharpton. Gingrich said he wasn't sure which was more confusing to his friends -- that he was working with the Obama Administration or that he was hanging out with Sharpton.

The oddness of the alliance was lost on the middle school students who answered questions at KIPP-Ujima Village Academy. They talked about how their school inspired them to think of going to college. Middle-schooler Tashawn Colbert said that at her previous school the emphasis wasn't on making it to college, but rather on making it to the next grade.

At Holabird Elementary/Middle School, students said that they had already had several field trips to different area colleges.

The Baltimore schools visits are part of a multi-city listen and learn tour. They are promoting bipartisan support for education legislation that is likely to come up in Congress next year.

"Al Sharpton was exactly right several years ago when he said that the number one civil right of the 21st Century is education," Gingrich said. "He's exactly right."

On the "unlikely alliance," Duncan said that seeing the passion that Gingrich and Sharpton have for education "week after week, month after month, city after city, has been remarkable."

The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta
TM & © 2009 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.