Thank you President Clinton for your support of educational excellence and student achievement

I am ready to but partisanship aside for a day and welcome former President Bill Clinton to Nashville and thank him for his support of education excellence.  He is speaking today to the graduating seniors of Leed Academy, 100% of whom are college bound.  That is a remarkable achievement! Leed students are mostly inner city Black kids. Eighty-four percent of LEAD’s seniors will be the first in their family to ever attend college and 80% of them are low income. For 100% of this demographic to be accepted into college is fantastic.

Former President Clinton is to be commended for speaking to these graduating seniors.  With many in the academic community, such as school board member Amy Frogge, seeing charter schools as a threat to public education and with union opposition, it is almost controversial to recognized the unprecedented success of charter schools and to recognized the achievement of charter school students.

Meet the LEAD Academy student who will introduce Bill Clinton

by Joey Garrison, The Tennessean, April 27 - Jamila Hill has her script ready for when she takes the mic Monday to introduce someone she admits probably needs no introduction — Bill Clinton.

The LEAD Academy senior, who like all her classmates is college-bound, will trace his rise from a young Arkansas governor to the 42nd president of the United States.

Most importantly, though, she'll note that his ascendance included stops and degrees at some top-tier universities: Georgetown and Yale.

"No disrespect to President Clinton, but back then, the education system in Arkansas was a lot like my neighborhood in Nashville in 2007," Hill plans to say. "It was rare to see kids like me go to college and do amazing things.