This is CBS I Am The World. I'm John Batson. Charter schools across the country, controversy,

headlines such as Pennsylvania where the new Governor Josh Shapiro is advocating charter

schools for some of the solutions in all the school districts. I welcome Leo Haney

and of the Hoover Institution writing about a charter skill in California, back of

theville, California, the Cairo's public charter schools and its ability to educate the disabled,

the people who have learning disabilities, commensurate with the best performing high schools

in all of California and well above the California average for students with disabilities.

What explains the advantage a public school and a rural part of California with no natural

connection to large cities or the advantages of high income? What explains this performance?

Leo, very good evening to you. This is inspirational, especially because education is much

on the news because of controversy at the Supreme Court. What does Cairo's do for its

disabled, its students with disabilities and how do they choose them? Good evening to you.

That's a pleasure. Cairo is a charter school in a very small rural area in California. As you

mentioned, it's out in the boondocks, about 35, 40 miles outside of the state capital. It's a new

school. It's less than 10 years old. Their academic performance is their hitting out of the park

and what's particularly striking is that their academic performance is on par with the Beverly

Hills school district. It spends about $56,000 per student per year. Cairo spends less than a

quarter of that on their kids. The academic performance is very close to Beverly Hills.

John, the way they do this is that they are able to have classrooms in which the kids want to

show up. Their absenteeism rate is almost zero. It's much much lower, particularly chronic absenteeism

relative to traditional public schools in the rest of California. They have avoided collective

bargaining union contracts. The director of Cairo schools told me that this makes all the

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