LeBron James could have followed the well-worn path of other celebrities by putting money into a charter school (e.g., Andre Agassi, whose Las Vegas charter school was so bad that it was handed off to a New York City charter operator).
But, no, he partnered with the Akron public schools to open a public school.
Good on LeBron!
Read here. Or here for the transcript.
View the video, where he says: “We literally have a school. It’s not a charter school, it’s not a private school, it’s a real-life school in my hometown. And this is pretty cool.”
The kids in his schools will have lots of wraparound services and, if they graduate, free college.
LeBron is giving back to the schools that made his success possible. He knows exactly what he is doing.
LeBron is creating a model of what a public school can be if it is well funded.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well he is not opening up a school for a tax credit or a new story. He is opening up a school because he deeply cares about his community and the American people. I applaud him for being a citizen of the world. Everyone deserves to have an outstanding education and he is helping the public schools do that.
I am so happy to hear this great news! Kudos to LeBron James! Hopefully he will inspire others to do the same.
MY HERO, LeBron James!
LeBron is a smart fellow with a big heart. He cares about community and is using his wealth and status, not to create an LLC or more money for himself, but a legacy that will contribute to the common good. LeBron said, “And I think that’s what kids ultimately want, they just want someone to feel like someone cares about them.” As someone that has worked with many poor students, I agree with LeBron. Students want to know that they are heard and valued. We should never under estimate the power of the human connection. Computers, data collection and testing are no substitute for positive human relationships and services that at risk families need to help stabilize them.
Good for LeBron James. Now, if only Akron (and other urban centers) had enough money to open their own public schools without having to rely on largesse from rare people like him….
The principal was on radio this AM (NPR) discussing the first day, most of it dedicated to the press and with LeBron James present, students and parents being welcomed.
The school has family wrap around services– a program for those who want to complete high school, find a job, need other social services including healthcare. Some of the staff, including teachers have trained to work with victims of trauma, including children.
I hope that this grand venture becomes a model for other schools. At the same time, funding and other support for our public schools should never depend on the generosity of a single person.
Kudos to LeBron James and the Akron public school system! How wonderful for the children. All the best.
LeBron is truly the greatest basketball player of all time, and he deserves all the praise in the world for his long-running commitment to philanthropy and his engagement in politics and his community. That being said, it is impossible to overlook the similarities between this school and a typical urban charter school.
–the school is a start-up. They are not working with or taking over a traditional public school, they are building a new one from the ground up and got to hand-pick the school’s leaders and staff.
–the school is not a traditional zoned neighborhood school; it accepts applicants by lottery
–Enrollment in Akron Public Schools and the school-age population of the district is declining. That means that this new school will, in fact, be drawing children and funding away from Akron’s traditional public schools. (For its part, the district has stated that the presence of the new school will help to reduce class sizes at its TPS.)
–the school’s day and calendar depart significantly from the contract negotiated between Akron Public Schools and the Akron Education Association
–the school will be receiving a significant amount of its per-pupil funding and its operational resources from private donors; these benefits will be available only to the children who attend the school and not those who attend Akron’s TPS
It looks like another instance of where it is okay for district schools to use the exact same practices that are abhorrent when done by charters.
Tough, Tim. It is a public school, not a charter. If public schools had Eva’s funding, they could all look like LeBron’s school. Unlike Eva, his school won’t weed out the “got-to-go” kids.
I read an article that said the school was starting with 3rd and 4th graders chosen by Akron public schools because they were at least one grade — sometimes two grades — below grade level in reading. LeBron’s charter is not choosing Kindergarten students via a lottery where only the most motivated families enter and the winning families must jump through hoops to take their spot. Not forcing winning students for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade to be pre-tested and told they have flunked a grade before even starting.
Those are exactly the students who are drummed out of Success Academy or discouraged from accepting their seats in post-Kindergarten years.
When large numbers of those at-risk students in LeBron’s school start disappearing and LeBron chooses to open two more schools in very affluent neighborhoods that give priority to the students whose families can afford to live in those affluent neighborhoods, then he will be acting just like Eva Moskowitz and her charters
When LeBron starts endorsing Betsy DeVos and insisting that DeVos be confirmed for the good of the children everywhere, then he will be acting just like Eva Moskowitz.
But since LeBron isn’t doing any of those things, I don’t know why some Moskowitz fans are claiming that LeBron is just like Moskowitz and some other charter leaders.
This school serves an at risk population, not highly selective like so many charters. These young people need all the help they can get. LeBron and Akron are investing in them.
Tim – you have a some of your facts wrong. I am an Akron Public Schools teacher. The I Promise school is a continuation of all LeBron has done for our district ever since his rookie year. He has supported our after school program and our summer school programs for third graders. His “I Promise” students have benefited from his generousity for many years before this school was even considered. He has provided incentives like tablets, uniform shirts, socks etc. This group of students has grown from a handful the first year to hundreds. They are recruited in third grade and are followed through high school. The first group of students are now finishing up high school and he has promised a free college education if they complete school and the requirements to enroll in college. These things were happening even while he played for Miami.
Students were selected based on their test scores and other factors that make them at risk. Students from other districts can not attend the I Promise school! It is for APS students only. The building is an APS owned building that for approximately 10 years has housed neighborhood schools while their new building is being built. Yes they did renovate the building and hand pick the staff to ensure that all of the staff were on the same page as far as trauma informed instruction, parent involvement etc. The teachers had to be willing to participate in additional professional development as well as work a longer school day and school year. They chose to apply.
As far as funding goes I know what you saying but is it really that different then a school that has teachers and administrators highly motivated to apply for grants?
There is no doubt in my mind that LeBron ‘s school will serve as an example for other athletes or celebrities as a way they can give back to their hometown.
“He has provided incentives like tablets, uniform shirts, socks etc.”
We live in a world where uniforms are considered an “incentive”. Sigh. If kids must wear the beastly things (and why must they, if rich kids don’t?), why can’t the school provide them for all students?
I agree, there are always nay sayers about anything Lebron does but that he has this level of interest and involvement in his community I just see no negatives. I hope others do similar things in their communities for at risk kids who need. Something extra. One commenter here seemed to turn up her nose about school uniforms but she apparently never came from a needy household. I wore uniforms all thru elementary and high school. It worked for me and my family by taking the clothes budget way down on the expense budget in my household. I never felt unspecial or average because it just wasn’t an issue. This helped my mom a lot. So basically, their a reasons for some policies that really resonate in some communities. You go Lebron, the goat.
Hi Tim:
Please be clear with fact and accurate information.
Please answer clearly with facts and figures to all of your vague expression, like:
1) …building a new one from the ground up and got to hand-pick the school’s leaders and staff.
2) it accepts applicants by lottery
3) the school will be receiving a significant amount of its per-pupil funding
I hope that there will be more celebrities and those riches to do common goods for their own communities like LeBron James.
IMHO, if Buddha has enemies and evils who try to defame him, I would expect there will be more evil schemes to follow people who try to set an excellent example for public.
Thank you Tim for setting up an outstanding example of being an evil scheme. Back2basic.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Sorry that I have to disagree. LeBron, as a Cleveland Cavalier, has been the recipient of tens of millions of dollars. Some of those dollars come from the fact that ALL Cleveland sports facilities, including the Q Arena where he played,pay no property taxes and never will. They are tax exempt and that means that the schools have never received a dime of the property taxes. The schools in Cuyahoga County receive about 60 percent of the total property taxes paid. So, the Cleveland schools have lost tens of millions of dollars in addition to paying so-called “sin” taxes of hundreds of millions of dollars with the tax still going.
We need to watch what we cheer about sports teams, owners and players who live off revenue that should be going to public schools.
Roldo Bartimole Unless LeBron owns the team and runs the city government, we can champion his efforts to return to the people of the city, especially to the proper education of its children, some of what he benefits from it; even if those benefits are tainted by what you say about taxes. My guess is the tax base and decisions about it are much more complex than you imply here anyway. CBK
Agree. The decisions on tax abatements do not come from a basketball player.
Roldo,
You could say the same thing about any public university with a big time sports program that builds arenas and stadiums. And you could say that every student, alum, faculty member, and employee — and all of their families — are tainted by the fact that these colleges are running big time sports on the public dime.
I don’t see the NBA players fighting hard for this. But the team OWNERS certainly do. So do the businesses. So do many fans.
You leave out an essential fact: the reason he makes so much money (and the owner makes more) is because large numbers of people willingly pay for it.
Diane,
I felt compelled to provide some additional information based on some of the responses to your blog that I have read here today.
First, LeBron is a wonderful partner of the Akron Public Schools (APS). The I Promise School (IPS) is a public school. We fund the students like we fund all other students in our district of approximately 21,000 students. The school was not built from the ground up, we are using an existing APS facility that was used to house students while their schools were being rebuilt. By the way, we have rebuilt 32 schools so far.
Students are selected by lottery among students from across the district who perform below the 25th percentile in reading. In addition we have an independent auditor from a local financial services firm observe the randomized lottery process.
While opening a new school will result in adjustments among other schools across APS, this is no different than our National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle and High Schools or our Akron Early College High School, where enrollment is from across the district.
In terms of the teachers, they are union members represented by the Akron Education Association, and I am proud of the fact that we agreed to use an interview process to select them. The District and the Association also agreed to the modified school schedule without contention because it is good for kids.
APS funds this school as we fund all other schools within the district. LeBron and his Foundation partners are funding most of the wrap-around supports and extra services above and beyond what we typically provide. For those of us in the public and not-for-profit sectors, we constantly worry about sustainability.
The free breakfast and lunch meals provided to all APS students are also provided to the IPS students. The bus rides provided to APS students in grades K through 8, who live more than 2 miles away from their school, are provided to the IPS students, in accordance with Ohio law. Our resident students are not charged tuition.
Our partnership with LeBron James goes back over 10 years. His commitment to our children is absolutely genuine.
David W. James, Superintendent
Akron Public Schools
Another article:
https://www.thenation.com/article/lebrons-education-promise-needs-become-countrys-promise/
Thank you for sharing this! An accurate summary.
I played basketball a lot when I was growing up, and was a huge basketball fan, a Lakers fan. I took my first date after getting my drivers license to an NBA game. Great memory. I stopped watching basketball completely, though, when Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, and a bunch of team and media owners all got together to turn NBA and NCAA basketball games into constant charter school advertising, targeting the basketball watching demographic. The hype was intolerable. Now, Lebron is coming to play for the Lakers and opening a school that will NOT be run by a secretive, unaccountable, private board. Maybe I will become a fan again. Many of my students will be thrilled if I know what’s going on in the basketball world. I hope the charter hype is absent from the sidelines.
My idol, doing it for his community!
It would be great if Melania started speaking out more often against Trump. I can’t imagine the two of them getting along very well. Trump brags about grabbing women who are beautiful and has paid off a number of them. This doesn’t make for a happy family life.
………………….
Melania Trump praises LeBron James in statement after husband insults him
Shortly after Donald Trump mocked NBA star, first lady says she would visit his school and Michael Jordan joins chorus of support
…“The US first lady, Melania Trump, said she would be open to visiting the NBA superstar LeBron James’s new public school, the day after her husband questioned the Los Angeles Lakers player’s intelligence.
Donald Trump insulted James on Friday night hours after CNN re-aired an interview with the basketball player and reporter Don Lemon. “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” Trump said. “He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”…
Many, including professional athletes and the Republican governor of Ohio, were critical of Trump’s statements…
https://gu.com/p/956ye/sbl