Andre Agassi is in the charter school business with his partner Bobby Turner, and they are building and opening charters across the nation. Agassi and Turner raised $750 million for their for-profit venture.
Meanwhile, back in Las Vegas, Agassi’s flagship charter school is one of the lowest performing schools in Nevada, and it will be taken over by Democracy Prep Charter School, based in New York City.
Agassi should sell tennis rackets and get out of the school racket.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wonder if Agassi has made any money on the deal?
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Agassi makes $1 million for each charter school he builds and opens.
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Nice gig, eh. . .
. . . I guess if one believes that making the most money is admirable and doesn’t have any sense of civic purpose/common good in society.
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I first heard about Agassi creating charter schools in Las Vegas over a year ago, and I thought that it sounded like a great thing for him to do. Before becoming a teacher, I worked for Boys and Girls Clubs, both in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. I actually met him a few times, as well as his then wife, Brooke Sheilds. I was impressed with his excitement and energy about helping under-privileged kids.
The Agassi Foundation paid for building a state-of-the-art club, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Las Vegas. So, I felt that I could give praise for his interest in supporting kids in their education, because I have been involved with Agassi and his philanthropy efforts.
The Agassi Club became the 2000th club in America, and dedicated in 2000. The dedication ceremony was national news within the Boys and Gil’s Clubs of America. It had labs that were classroom sized; a computer lab, library, art room, teen center, and conference room for kids to do homework and conduct leadership program meetings. The floor of the gym was beautiful and was supposed to be very easy and inexpensive to care for. A beautiful cafeteria that was designed to serve meals – 3 a day during the summer – to 110 kids. The tennis courts (of course) were made of recycled soles from Nike shoes, and tennis lessons taught by experts from Agassi’s tennis center. And, a pavilion with picnic tables and a gas barbecue structure. Needless to say, we were in awe!
Here’s what happened next when we started to serve kids. Broken windows along the busy MLK road, from people throwing the rocks that were in the zero-scape along the building. Swing doors, cupboards and cabinets, and shelfs in the front entrance that were constantly breaking. Heavy gym doors that did not have the hardware for them to close slowly on their own. We had plumbing problems, electrical problems, and a weak wi-fi system in the computer lab. And there was no hot water! This was a huge problem because of the criteria under the Federal Food Program that allowed us to serve meals. I was in charge of monitoring our site to make sure we were following the guidelines for this program. The first year, the inspector gave us a “pass”, with the agreement to have it fixed before the next inspection. It ended up being a few years because no one could figure out why there was no hot water. It was finally discovered that the building gas line had not been connected to the public line under the road. So here is this state-of-the-art club that was falling apart from day one. Some of it was because the architect and building planners never considered asking staff how to make it kid friendly and safe; much like thousands of out-dated schools. Plus, construction was behind schedule so many things were done cheaply, so it would be ready for the 2000th club ceremony. What a waste, a huge waste!
When I started to hear about Agassi’s charter schools and their failing status or financial dealings that were questionable, I was sad at first. I know he is very dedicated to helping the kids in this neighborhood. His charter school was located 2-3 blocks from the club, which allowed teachers and staff to attend to the whole-child needs, during school and after school; the latch-key kids. Unfortunately, this did not happen as successfully as planned. The club thrived, and the administration contracted a different construction company to repair the cheap work and replace the Xerox-scape rocks with something that wouldn’t break windows.
This is just one example of the failing status of charter schools across the nation. To hear that Agassi is building more charter schools is disgraceful, when the problems haven’t been rectified at the first one. Agassi is doing the same thing that other charter chains are doing, by expanding the broken program and services before fixing the problems. Plus, his very popular name is attached to these failures. Does he care? It was hard for me to believe that his charter was failing, because I saw first hand, his sincere dedication and excitement.
Just goes to show what we already know….education is not a business and innovation under a business model does not improve education. Will he become humble enough to admit that he really had no idea of what was going on? Hmmm, does Devos give millions to crooked politicians?
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Agassi could have chosen to partner with respected and experienced educators to work for better educational opportunities for children.
Why celebrities and athletes persist in buying into for-profit education is disturbing.
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Here’s some data on the new world of education as the public sector schools every country in the world uses for most of their children is hijacked by frauds from community based, democratic, non-profit, transparent control to an autocratic, private sector, for profit charter school industry that’s opaque and secretive.
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Almost 80 percent of business survive their first two years. By the 5th year, that number is down to about 56 percent. At ten years, the survival rate is down to less than 35 percent.
https://www.bls.gov/bdm/entrepreneurship/bdm_chart3.htm
Imagine what it will be like if every decade 65 -percent of the nation’s schools go out of business and close their doors to be replaced by another Edupreneur who will siphon off as much money as possible before they go out of business too. All they have to do is follow the example of President Elect Littlefingers Donald Trump, who repeatedly, through one bankruptcy after another, paid himself huge 8-figure salaries as CEO while his ventures seldom if ever made enough money to pay the bills or all the employees what they were owed for their work.
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Sounds like the magical workings of that vaunted free market to me!
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Argh….
Cash and carry society on we have. Some things should not be for profit, like charter schools. Charter schools = sinister and sucks $$$$$ from public schools. Bad people are in charge.
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KA-CHING!
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Sadly, in New Jersey, Agassi continues to “partner” with many and varied entities…all of them making money on the proposition, Prudential key among them. Prudential’s “social investment” is a money maker, a taxpayer dollars taker, and there doesn’t seem any stopping it. So long as the government is complicit in these charter school money making schemes, how do we make it stop? So long as companies like Prudential push the “social good” aspect – with an ROI rolled into it, how do we make it stop? Certainly Agassi doesn’t care, or doesn’t have a clue any longer, to what his name is tied to. Shame on him.
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