Andre Agassi says he will open 39 more charter schools

Andre Agassi, the world's former No 1 tennis player, said that his Andre Agassi Foundation and his real estate-investment fund will oversee 39 more US public charter schools nationwide by the end of August.

The next school to open will be in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the 44-year-old Agassi told China Daily on Tuesday in an interview.

Former world No 1 tennis player Andre Agassi attends a kindergarten class at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy on May 6 with Olivia Young, who teaches the alphabet. The public charter school aims to provide quality education to economically challenged children in grades K-12 and is financed by the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. Agassi told China Daily that his foundation and real-estate investment fund will open 39 more charter schools nationwide. CHANG JUN/CHINA DAILY

The foundation now operates one public charter school, the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy (AACPA), which opened in 2001 in Clark County, Nevada.

Agassi, who dropped out of school in the ninth grade to pursue fame and fortune on the tennis court — he won eight Grand Slams and a 1996 Olympic gold medal — said he will keep investing in education to help economically challenged children have opportunities to learn because education gives them freedom to shape their future.

"Never stop investing in your future, that is your children. When you do that, you suffer from insufficiency, your country goes nowhere and you fail your next generation," said Agassi. "You just don't give up, it's not over yet."

The foundation initially focused on a wide range of programs to help children by "doing little things for some food, some shelter, some boys and girls clubs," he said. However, he said those temporary fixes would not solve long-term problems.

"Early on, we concluded that the best way to change a child's life was through education," Agassi said.

He said that he and his foundation felt a pressing need to improve local public education in Nevada because it lags far behind the rest of the US states. Clark County is one of the biggest school districts in the nation and has a population of 80 percent blacks and around 10 percent Latinos, with many families under state poverty guidelines.

Charter schools must provide their own facilities, so the Andrew Agassi Charitable Foundation (AACP) raised funds to construct a $40 million school campus in the west Las Vegas community. "I felt if I can improve here, I can improve anywhere," said Agassi.

AACPA started tuition-free programs for grades 3 through 5. Enrollments were conducted through a public computer-based lottery system. Preference is given to children living in a two-mile radius from the school, and there are no entrance exams, according to Chris Smith, head of the school. He said AACPA has expanded each year and is now a K through 12 school with 1,200 students.

The most important resources of the school are our teachers and staff, said Agassi. "They are centralized around children's success. They get into this environment that they can teach the kids, and the kids thrive on whatever they do in the future," he said, adding the school holds every teacher accountable for the performance of their students.

Another key element of the school is educators who set high expectations for the students. To maximize the opportunity for academic achievement, students attend school for an additional two hours each day and an additional two weeks per year, said Francisco Aguilar, general counsel with the foundation.

The bar is raised outside the classroom, too. Students and parents are required to sign a ``code of excellence'' pledging to fulfill school requirements, including community service hours.

Students are taught that the qualities of integrity and accountability will help them overcome the challenges they will face in their lives, according to Smith. They are required to recite a ``code of respect'' as part of their morning routine. "It (respect) is an attitude that begins at home, it is reinforced in school and is applied throughout life," states the code

For anyone who wants success, "you get to show discipline, show refrain from temptation, repetition and persistence," said Agassi, adding these are all the things he had learned on the tennis court. "And this muscle can be implied to anything."

In 2009, the school graduated its first senior class with all of the students accepted into colleges, as were the graduates in the classes of 2010 and 2011, according to Aguilar. The US Education Department has called the school a "national model" among charter schools, and the Nevada Education Department has awarded the school "exemplary" and "high achieving".

The school is financed by the state as well as private and corporate donations. In the past, the ``Grand Slam for Children'', presented by Swiss watchmaker Longines, brought together international celebrities to help build awareness of the school and raise funds. Over the past 20 years, the foundation has provided more than $70 million to support continuing programs at the school and other causes targeting underserved children in Southern Nevada and elsewhere

"He is one of the most talented tennis players of his time and combines generosity and elegance with his charity work through his Andre Agassi Foundation for Education," said Juan-Carlos Capelli, vice-president and head of international marketing of Longines.

Capelli said the funds raised help underwrite the school's operating budget and sustain the foundation's initiatives to have an impact on education and educational policy on the local and national level.