New Hall Of Famer Andre Agassi On Tennis, Family And Overhauling Education In America

Yahoo Sports ^ | July 8, 2011 | Victor Chi

[Baynative]

Agassi has used the platform that tennis gave him to pursue his lifelong goal of giving children in need a better education. He founded his own school in Las Vegas 10 years ago and just forged a partnership with Canyon Capital to provide $500 million of funding for 75 charter schools across the country in the next three years.

"Andre Agassi has done more to help others than any athlete has ever done," his former coach Nick Bollettieri says. "He helped take tennis to another level, but what he is doing now with education will be so much greater because it will go on for generations and generations. This will exceed the impact he made on tennis. And this is not a one-time flash. He will continue doing it forever."

In an exclusive interview with ThePostGame.com, Agassi discusses his career, his family and his ideas on overhauling education in America:

[Baynative]

"Education is a tool a child can use to create their own life and hopefully change the world. But once you start, you can't stop. You start with a kindergarten, a first, second and third grade. What are you going to do then? Send them back into a failing system? So I just continued with the mission, and it continues to this day. We've graduated three classes, and success is going to be these children coming back to their community and making a difference in the next generation. Success is going to be me figuring out how to scale what it is we're doing at Agassi Prep across this country. We're really on the forefront of changing inner cities in America with our latest project, so it just keeps pulling me. We spend three times more to incarcerate a man than we do to educate a boy. It's a crime to not shorten the lines that exist for a productive excellent education."- A. Agassi

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve wanted to read “Open”, but instead am looking for the audiobook version, maybe I’ll check the library. Thanks Baynative.