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Both CBS and ABC checked out programs to improve the quality of public school education. Bill Weir took advantage of ABC's limited commercials to plant a sloppy wet kiss on KIPP as a Key to Success. Knowledge Is Power Program is a 57-site network of charter schools founded by a pair of Houston teachers, Michael Feinberg and Dave Levin. Supported by millions in donations from The GAP's retail fortune and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, KIPP recruits low-income children, many testing at two grades below their age, and delivers an 80% post-school enrolment in college. Weir ticked off KIPP techniques: higher teacher pay, a longer school day, extra school on Saturday and during the summer, enforced parental participation, heavy homework. He summed it up as Work Hard. Be Nice. No Shortcuts.
CBS' Sandra Hughes took us to Normandie Avenue Elementary in South Central Los Angeles, a neighborhood so poor that each of the school's 1,000 students qualifies for the federal free meals program. The program there, funded by former Disney TV child star Hillary Duff, is called Blessings in a Backpack. It allows children to take more free food home at weekends in their backpacks. The result is improved attendance on Monday mornings and increased test scores. As one girl testified: "On an empty stomach, you cannot learn anything."
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