{"id":1990577,"date":"2023-08-04T05:18:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T09:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-lawmakers-heaped-praise-on-this-celebrity-school-its-failing-students-and-taxpayers\/"},"modified":"2023-08-04T05:19:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T09:19:38","slug":"dem-lawmakers-heaped-praise-on-this-celebrity-school-its-failing-students-and-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-lawmakers-heaped-praise-on-this-celebrity-school-its-failing-students-and-taxpayers\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity School Praised by Lawmakers, Fails Students and Taxpayers."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdem-lawmakers-heaped-praise-on-this-celebrity-school-its-failing-students-and-taxpayers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1990577&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<h2>LeBron James Premieres &#8220;Space Jam: A New Legacy&#8221;<\/h2>\n<h3>Arriving in Style<\/h3>\n<p><em>TOPSHOT &#8211; Basketball player\/actor LeBron James arrives at the Warner Bros Pictures world premiere of &#8220;Space Jam: A New Legacy&#8221; at \u200bthe Regal LA Live in Los Angeles, California, July 12, \u20622021. (Photo\u200b by VALERIE\u2064 MACON \/ AFP) (Photo by VALERIE \u200dMACON\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>When liberal politicians and education activists praised \u200bLeBron James \u2064for founding an Ohio school \u200bfor\u200d struggling students,\u2064 it\u2062 seemed like a promising endeavor. However,\u200c the reality has been far from successful.<\/p>\n<h3>A Disappointing Performance<\/h3>\n<p>Audacious endorsements from prominent Democrats,\u2063 including Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, accompanied \u2063the opening of the \u2063I Promise\u200b School in Akron in 2018. Despite receiving \u200d$8.4 million in funding from Akron \u2063taxpayers last year, \u200cthe school&#8217;s inaugural class of third <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-lawmakers-heaped-praise-on-this-celebrity-school-its-failing-students-and-taxpayers\/\" title=\"Celebrity School Praised by Lawmakers, Fails Students and Taxpayers.\">graders showed abysmal \u200cacademic performance<\/a>. Not a single student demonstrated proficiency in math over the past three years. Shockingly,\u2064 black\u200b students, who make up 60 percent of the school&#8217;s population, ranked\u200d in the bottom 5 percent statewide. Consequently, the Ohio \u2062Department of Education labeled I Promise as a failing school in need of intervention.<\/p>\n<p>LeBron James, known for\u200d his political activism, has\u200c been a vocal supporter of Democratic causes. However, the issues plaguing his own school highlight the potential pitfalls of political partnerships with celebrities. Michelle Obama, in 2018, expressed pride in\u200c James&#8217;s efforts\u2064 to provide opportunities for \u200cchildren. Sherrod Brown also commended the athlete as a strong advocate for the next \u2062generation. Yet, neither the Obamas nor Brown have addressed the school&#8217;s ongoing struggles.<\/p>\n<h3>A School in Crisis<\/h3>\n<p>Local officials have not shied away from criticizing James and his school. Valerie McKitrick, a member of the Akron Public Schools Board of Education, expressed disbelief that not a\u200d single\u200b child passed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lance-izumi-woke-math-returns-to-california\/\" title=\"Lance Izumi: Woke Math Returns to California\">state math test<\/a> in three years. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-teacher-pleads-guilty-after-mailing-white-powder-threats-to-elementary-school-staffers\/\" title=\"Ex-Teacher Pleads Guilty After Mailing White Powder Threats To Elementary School Staffers\">poor performance<\/a> has been defended by I Promise School officials, who argue that students are more than \u2062just\u2062 test scores.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s \u200cnot just politicians who endorsed James&#8217;s school. Liberal education activists at the Center for American Progress also praised the initiative. Neil Campbell, a former director at the think tank, hailed schools like I Promise as what America&#8217;s kids need. James Hagopian, author of &#8220;Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising \u200cfor Educational Justice,&#8221; commended\u200c James for establishing a public school that doesn&#8217;t drain \u200cresources \u2064from other schools.<\/p>\n<p>However, within the Akron Public Schools system, the sentiment is different. Keith Liechty-Clifford, the district&#8217;s\u200b director of school improvement,\u2062 finds the school&#8217;s performance discouraging. Derrick Hall, the board president, laments the significant allocation of public resources without seeing the expected change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James, the basketball player\/actor, attended the world premiere of &#8220;Space Jam: A New Legacy&#8221; in Los Angeles. Liberal politicians and education activists showered him with praise. (Photo: VALERIE MACON\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2088,"featured_media":1990578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1990577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2088"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1990577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1990577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1990577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1990577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}