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Fab Five Wants A Slam Dunk For Detroit Area Students

DETROIT (WWJ) - He was known as one of the Fab Five on the basketball court at the University of Michigan...Now Jalen Rose is trying for a slam dunk for Detroit area students.

The Jalen Rose Leadership Academy is a charter high school for 9th through 12 graders set to open in September on Detroit's Northwest Side. Rose says he decided to open the tuition free charter school because Detroit is facing a crisis in education.

"Only 30 per cent of 9th graders will graduate from high school," Rose said. "When you hear those numbers, if we were a third world country, it would be declared a crisis, and there would be a state of national emergency." Rose added that while graduation numbers are going down, the crime rate, the unemployment rate, and the poverty rate in Detroit  are all going up."

Rose says he's not competing with the Detroit Public Schools, but giving parents and students more choices for a high performing school in the city.

Rose tells WWJ, "When you talk about high performing schools in Detroit, you think about Cass Tech and Renaissance. We went to offer the same quality of education as those schools, and be comparable to private schools in the suburbs, but without charging tuition."

The academy will enroll 120 ninth grade students this Fall, followed by an additional freshman class each subsequent year with a total enrollment of 480 students at full capacity after four years.

For information, go here

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