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By BOB HERBERT
NYT

The teenager’s voice on the other end of the phone on Thursday was more than exuberant. It was ecstatic.

“I’m going to college!” she said, virtually singing. “I’m going to college!”

I met Shanequa High some years ago when she was a sixth-grader at a middle school that was still in the embryonic stage (there were only two grades) in rural Gaston, N.C. The Gaston College Preparatory School was part of the KIPP network of charter schools, and the early word was that it was showing great promise.

Gaston was hardly a stereotypical stop for someone in search of academic excellence. The school’s new, low-rise building was built on land that had previously been a peanut and soybean farm. I remember driving past farm-equipment outlets and a cotton field on my way from the airport to the school.

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