Primed for Success?

That's what one would think about Prime Prep Academy, a charter school in Texas started by Deion Sanders. You'd think 'success' if you believed that the primary purpose of a public school is to become an athletic powerhouse. Sanders apparently thought that, as Prime Prep is usually ranked among the top 20 basketball teams in the country.

On the other hand, if you thought education was the prime purpose of a public school, then you'd have to say Prime Prep was a failure, as its lower grades were rated F by a respected Texas nonprofit group. The high school of Prime Prep could not be rated due to missing data.

Some other questionable aspects of Prime Prep:

• Former staff have made - at least in the eyes of the article's author - credible accusations of violence and intimidation by Sanders and his hangers-on.
• Others say they saw cafeteria workers sitting idle while parents came in with pizza and fried chicken and sold it to the students. 
• Money for a school lunch program was not used to serve meals to students.

It seems as though that high schools have adopted the college emphasis on sports. For example:

• A Nevada prep school was created to field a basketball team.
• There are players who switch high schools two or three times in four years. 
• The top high school player in Michigan announced that he was transferring to a prep academy in the Napa Valley in California — although that school does not yet exist.
• The star player for Prime Prep is now playing basketball for the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association; he's being paid $1,500,000 for the season.