Deion Sanders is funding free charter schools in Dallas, Fort Worth
Deion Sanders has made millions of dollars playing football and delivering his own insight on the sport he loves. Now he's giving back to one of the communities in which he starred, which he still calls home.
As reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Prime Time is investing in and starting two tuition-free charter schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The schools, called Prime Prep Academy, will open campuses in Dallas and Fort Worth and will open in fall 2012 for students in kindergarten through fifth grade in Fort Worth and sixth through 12th grade in Dallas. In the meantime, Prime Prep already has a website and Twitter account up and running, touting its future goals.
Sanders is launching the schools in conjunction with his business partner, D.L. Wallace, a former entrepreneur who earned enough as a young businessman to chase a life of charitable pursuits. In addition to his work with Sanders in starting Prime Prep Academy, Wallace serves on the board of the University of North Texas and founded the Summer Feeding Initiative, which helps feed children in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who would otherwise go without meals while out of school during the summer months.
[ Related: Superstar prep pitcher Lucas Giolito hits 100 mph on radar gun ]
Together, Sanders and Wallace have put together ambitious goals for the first-year school. The duo plan to hire some 100 teachers and will offer a 1-to-1 student to laptop ratio. That impressive computer quota is part of a technology-centric curriculum (Sanders told the Star-Telegram that the schools will also employ the VSSCHOOLZ eLearning Solutions model, which allows the school to create and administer its own customizable online curriculum), which Wallace and Sanders hope will help inner-city students be more prepared for working with ever-evolving technology in modern society.
For his part, Sanders sounded confident that his forthcoming schools would be at least as important a part of his legacy as his playing career.
"It's been a three-year process and it has finally come to pass," Sanders told the Star-Telegram. "Nothing I have ever done compares to this. We are going to have the best teachers and coaches. These schools will have no color and no boundaries. We plan to educate and influence kids to go on and make a true difference in their community."
Considering the fact that they'll be doing it all for free, Sanders' optimistic claims about his own educational legacy might even be accurate.
Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
• Prep basketball powerhouse may be moved to separate bracket
• Video: Robert Griffin III reflects on how combine helped his draft stock
• Y! TV: Best and worst athletes in acting
