chance to succeed. that starts with education. we were going to be at patrick henry charter school here in richmond today, and unfortunately a fire took place at the school. hopefully we will do that visit next week. but it is just one of the many school visits that i have done not only here in virginia, but throughout the country, to try and understands what we can do to help parents and their kids. you know, i met a woman in new orleans, her name is essence. she says her daughter goes to the one of the charter schools or one of the private schools in new orleans in part of their choice system. she said she would do anything to keep that daughter there. we ve got to, as a country, realize the building block of success, the ability of people to go out and earn that success and seize opportunities starts with education, and i m hoping that over the next year and a half in congress we can effect some of these reform ideas so that we can actually help people get about their life so we can
timeframe. having said that it is clear too many graduate high school who are not prepared for college. too many kids don t graduate high school. in the 21st century kids who don t graduate high school. what is their plan b? paul: one of your strategies for reform was charter schools in clusters particularly in harlem. you had some success there. you get a community that looks at it and all schools get lifted up. but the critique of charters is they never anywhere have again up to scale. this kind of scale you need even though some individual schools are very successful, you need scale if you are going to reform the whole system. how respond? screw are right. i think harlem is as close to you are right. i think harlem is as close to scale and louisiana now. in new orleans you have a choice system. in harlem today 40% of the kids who start school go to charter schools. that s why you got the
over that time frame. having said that, it s also clear to me that way too many kids graduate high school who are not prepared for college and far too many kids don t graduate high school. in the 21st century, kids graduated high school, what s their plan b. one of your strategies for reform is to put charter schools in clusters and had some success there and because then you get a kind of community that looks at it, all schools get lifted up by that kind of cluster strategy, but the critique of charters is that they never anywhere have gone up to scale. the kind of scale you need. even though some individual schools are very successful you need scale if you re going to reform the whole system. how do you respond to? you re absolutely right. but i think column is close to scale in new orleans now. post katrina they created a new system and in new orleans you have a real choice system. and harlem today, 40% of the kids who start school go to charter schools.