The biggest problem in schools is that kids simply don't care. I teach math in a low-income school district, and a frightening number just want to play on their cell phones and ipods. Yes, the same kids who have free lunch have these toys.

I think it absolutely wonderful that finally someone is taking the initiative and money to at least give Americas educatonal system a kick-start in the right direction. To say the way we presently have things set up is arcgaic, is a major understatement!!! The entire system needs to be revamted from top to bottom, starting with the teacher's union and their ridiculous tenure policy. Teachers should be graded and evaluated on a yearly basis, and when they are not doing their jobs properly, be replaced immediately! Teachers who are doing an exceptional job should be rewarded handsomely! (And not just with praise and awards, but with $$$$ as well!)
I hope this story gets as much, if not more, coverage, and national attention, as the ridiculous "fight club" story of a few 11 & 12 olds, video taping their fist fights and putting it on the internet. The media is in need of a real reality check, when they convein on a school, and consider it newsworthy, that some little kids are having a fist fight -- that's right a FIST fight, not a knife fight, not a gun fight, no blood, just your average, run-of-the-mill, one on one, fist fight! Shame on the TV news media for stooping so low!