talent and money to help our kids. we want every united way and big brothers big sisters affiliate to work together strategically and collaboratively to help create opportunity. it s already happening in places like winston-salem, louisville, austin, ft. lauderdale and many other places. community groups, schools, volunteers and parents are working together to make sure elementary and middle school students succeed. now, in these communities, this is working very well. big brothers, big sisters, united way and the schools are working together so that when a child actually is acting out in school or fails a test or skips class, a big brother or a big sister is there to work with the family and the teacher to make sure that that child gets back on track. and it s not just about the bad things. when good things happen, they celebrate that together, too. that s the kind of synergy we want to create in every community. we hope to come back here in a few years and report that
pointed fingers, bickered, and at the end of the day nothing meaningful changed for the nation s children. early in his administration president obama said that america could no longer maintain the status quo in chronically low performing schools. we could not continue to tinker. he believes, and i believe, that the dramatic changes desperately needed in low-performing schools and we absolutely reject the idea that some schools or some children or some neighborhoods are just destined to file. so in 2009 our administration with the support of congress created a new and much more ambitious program for turning around low-performing schools. it gives states and districts four options for dramatic improvement but all four options require schools to institute far-reaching changes to improve student learning. as my friend says, a tweet here or toggle there will not lead to fundamental change. for the first time, the administration put serious efforts, to a tune of $4 billion. that m
low-performing schools. tragically, sometimes not just for a few years but literally decades children have been cheated out of a world class education and for fa too long we, adults, educators, leaders, passively observed this educational failure with a complacency deeply disturbing. states and district officials have traditionally tinkered in the schools instead of treating them as the educational emergencies they are. from the moment i became the ceo of the chicago public schools in 2001, i had so many people tell me not much could be done to transform a failing school. i was told that nothing could be done to transform failing schools at scale. skeptics on the left of the political spectrum said the barriers of poverty and race and the attachment of parents to the neighborhood schools were just too tough to overcome. those on the right of the political spectrum said that teachers and unions and district administrators would never buy into dramatic and fundamental change. a