Oprah's African Academy

Oprah Winfrey has given $40 million dollars to create a girls academy in Africa. The school in Johannesburg will eventually help educate up to 450 young women each year, all from extremely poor backgrounds. Girls who would otherwise face AIDS, violence, and starvation now have computer labs, an auditorium, books, and uniforms.

Why doesn't this woman, net worth $1.5 billion, give a money to American schools? After all, the suggestion is always made that schools would be much improved if only they had more federal dollars. Oprah explained at least part of the reason herself in an incendiary quote to Newsweek:

"Say what you will about the American educational system—it does work," she says. "If you are a child in the United States, you can get an education." And she doesn't think that American students—who, unlike Africans, go to school free of charge—appreciate what they have.

"I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there," she says. "If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school."

This is an extraordinary statement from a woman who knows what she's talking about. Oprah spent much of her early years in poverty - as a coal miner's daughter who experienced abuse and life as a runaway. Nevertheless (read her short biography) she had a father and mother who both cared for her. And she credits education as a powerful force that helped her transcend her very difficult circumstances.

Spend millions, spend billions. You can't dump enough money on the system and achieve any kind of results if people don't care.

Give two kids armful of battered textbooks and a semi-competent teacher. If the first child has a mother or father who spends time each night on homework and the second child has parents who are nonexistent (or sleeping, or at bar, or a nail salon) - the first kid will have an infinitely better shot. Families, parents who know the stakes and instill genuine values beyond materialism - these are things more valuable than all the diamonds in Africa.

We may not need her wealth in America - but we do need Oprah speaking some uncomfortable truths to a society that makes excuses, glorifies idiotic behavior, and chronically avoids accountability.

Tags: Oprah Winfrey