Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007 | 1:28 a.m.
When Andre Agassi stood before a packed house at the MGM Grand Garden Arena this month, it was his 12th opportunity to talk about his dream of helping Clark County's young people make a better lives for themselves through education. It also was an even dozen times that he has provided one of the greatest evenings of entertainment anywhere in the world in return for millions of dollars donated to his foundation, which is dedicated to funding that dream.
The idea behind the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy charter school was to provide young people who are growing up in some of the most economically and socially depressed parts of our community a way out of their hopeless future and a way into a world as bright as any young person's in Las Vegas.
Twelve years later that dream has become more hopeful for the Agassi students than anyone could have dared to imagine a decade ago. They are two years away from their first graduating class from which all or almost all the graduates will go on to college. Many of them will have their choice of the top universities in the country and the others will have to settle for just the really good schools.
The point is that these kids will go on to become contributing, responsible leaders in all facets of business, social and political life. The reality is that they will be people society will look up to and take pride in instead of young people society would shun, be fearful of and mourn. Because without the opportunity that they have and that all our children deserve from us, they could have grown up to be gang members, criminals and, perhaps, victims of a culture that preys on young people who see only hopelessness in their lives.
In short, Andre Agassi has led our community toward a far more responsible course in the education of our children and a far more productive future for those who will follow.
You don't have to take my word for it. You can visit the school and see for yourself and learn firsthand that kids can be educated; kids can learn to respect others as well as themselves, their teachers and their parents; and parents and teachers can make and keep the kind of commitment to those young people that citizens have thought has been missing for a long time.
Words like accountability and responsibility are coupled with an appropriate financial investment in that school and those who work there to come up with a formula for success that should be known and copied in all parts of the country.
In fact, Andre spoke about how pleased he was for the school and its mission to have been singled out in President Bill Clinton's latest book about giving back to society and making a difference. He also showed a television clip from his and President Clinton's appearance on "Oprah," and how she raved to her massive audience about the success the school was having.
Andre said: "This is a community coming together, pooling our resources and targeting our love toward the most vulnerable young souls in our city. From the outside this may look like a concert, but this evening is a movement, an evening united around the belief that every child has the right to thrive."
He talked about being invited to the Clinton Global Initiative, at which hundreds of global political and economic leaders recognized the work of the Agassi School.
"The work that we are doing here in Las Vegas is reverberating around the world. Not only do people around the globe want to know more about what we are doing, they want to partner with us and they want to replicate it in their communities. Many wanted to know how our school had become such a success story, in an environment where the odds are stacked against it."
It is clear that Andre has put Las Vegas on the map for something more than tourism and more than the place where one of tennis's legends grew up. He has put us on a map of communities that are doing something about the sad state of our schools and the failure of our society to respond to the education crisis.
And then he told us something that at the same time excited the room and frustrated me.
There is no question that when we find an education model that will work in our inner cities and challenged areas, we should export it to other places with similar challenges. That means just about every major urban area in the country could use an Agassi School.
There is also no question that when we find a way to educate young people toward a life of hope and promise instead of death and despair, we should do so without hesitation. And there is no question that one Agassi School in Clark County should be just the start because there are children all over this community who will thrive with the right opportunity to learn.
Andre proudly told the audience of benefactors, "I am proud to announce that not only is the world watching but another city is committed to opening the next Agassi School in Camden, N.J. We have already been recognized as a landmark but now we are becoming a catalyst, a leader, and nothing would touch us more than if other cities around the world looked to us and said, 'This is the way it can be.' "
To that I say, bravo Camden, N.J., and bravo Andre Agassi School. And that leads me to only one question.
If this success can be replicated in Camden and in other cities across the country - as well it should - what is taking Clark County so long to replicate it here? When will we see our own school system follow the Agassi model and invest what is necessary to produce champions and not chumps from our latest generation?
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