As many of you are aware, I have never been a fan of LeBron James. His far left political views are about as far from my political feelings as one can get. Furthermore, when he comes with some reactionary statement that subsequently proves to be flat out wrong, he never apologizes … as was the case last year after a shooting in Ohio.
Although he is admittedly a very good basketball player, I never have thought much of him as a person … until I read something on 7/30 which made me think that should take another look at LeBron James, the person.
Unbeknown to me LeBron James established the “I Promise School” in 2018 to help educate “at-risk” students.
From BlazeMedia:
The ‘I Promise School’ proclaims, “With education as the driving force of change, the LeBron James Family Foundation is not only spreading that impact and improving lives of inner-city students and families, but also shifting the course of an entire community. Focusing on his hometown of Akron, the Foundation’s I PROMISE program provides year-round resources, access to opportunities, supportive skill development, constant encouragement and other wraparound supports to more than 1,300 Akron Public School students who have all been guaranteed college scholarships if they do their part.” (Underlining is mine.) “These efforts have culminated in the groundbreaking new public school – the I Promise School – that is taking an innovative approach to providing a challenging, supportive, and life-changing education, creating a new model for urban public education.”
Wow! Guaranteeing college scholarships for 1300 local students is indeed very impressive. Hats off to LeBron! … However, some bad news
LeBron’s I Promise School – which teaches children from 1st to 8th grade – has recently been outed for poor performance in mathematics.
The Akron Beacon Journal reported this week: “This fall’s class of eighth graders at the I Promise School hasn’t had a single student pass the state’s basic math test since the group was in the third grade.”
The Akron Beacon Journal added, “The state has also issued its first concern about the school: two of I Promise’s biggest subgroups of students, black students and those with disabilities, are now testing in the bottom 5% in the state, landing the school on the Ohio Department of Education’s list of those requiring targeted intervention.”
Read back to the above ‘I Promise School’ proclamation … “ guaranteed college scholarships, if they do their part.”
To me, as a result of the extremely poor test results, it seems pretty obvious that somebody is not doing their part … and I doubt that it’s the students.
8/11/23