To hear how a young Marvin Sapp celebrated Valentine’s Day and what soul crooner he loves, listen to the audio above.
Black history is made every day. For Pastor Marvin Sapp, it’s not just his Michigan-based church, Lighthouse, and his powerful gospel music testimony anchored by his classic hit “Never Would Have Made It,” it’s also a new endeavor that most of his fans don’t even know about. Last year, Sapp realized the dream of his late wife Dr. MaLinda Sapp by opening a charter school. The Grand Rapids Ellington School of Arts and Technology, is the only Pre-12 performing arts and technology school in Western Michigan. “It was the brainchild of my lovely wife,” Sapp told the Tom Joyner Morning Show.
“It was something that we worked on for the last eight years. She didn’t get a chance to see her vision come to pass but I made the decision that I wasn’t going to allow her dream to die and go to the grave with her. So I picked up that mantle and got it open the last year with about 140 students and we expanded and have about 140 students and we’re excited about it.”
As part of his commitment to education, Sapp is doing an 11-city School Choice tour by which he hopes to spread awareness of the options that parents have in where they choose to educate their children. While charter schools remain controversial as they are part of the debate about privatization of schools overall, Sapp says it’s important to give parents more options.
“I’m really excited to travel across this country talking about choice in schools. It gives me an opportunity to go and talk about something I’m really passionate about. People talk about charter schools and public schools and the divide. My position is very simply this – there are good public schools and good charter schools. There are bad public schools and bad charter schools. I think one of the challenges we have in the urban community is that we are losing our children. They are falling way, way behind. And I think that’s because those of us who are affluent have choice. If the affluent can have choice, why can’t the hood have it as well? I’m not about Republican or Democrat I’m about making sure our kids have an opportunity to grow.”
To check out Pastor Sapp’s upcoming dates on the School Choice tour, click here.
(Photo: Marvin Sapp Facebook page)
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