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One day in mid-October, the strains of Engelbert Humperdinck rang out at KIPP Renaissance High School. The 1960s crooner's recorded voice was competing, however, with the live orders of school administrator and homecoming coordinator Tania Roubion.

Now that the election is over, it's time to look forward to January 2013. That's when the Tennessee General Assembly will convene to start putting into effect the ideas and solutions that were brought up before Election Day.

Dillard University plans Friday to announce it will guarantee full financial support for 10 students from KIPP charter schools each year, as part of KIPP's effort to ensure its alumni finish college. The initiative will quadruple the number of KIPP alumni at Dillard in four years.

KIPP Delta students were featured in Essence magazine's "10 Things We're Talking About" article, thanks to their involvement with the Clinton Foundation initiative called No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project.

[TRANSCRIPT]: Children from poor families are less likely to go to university. And they're more likely to drop out when they get there. That's the achievement gap, and it's something that educators have long wrestled with. What else can you teach children at school that will help them get on in life?

KIPP, previously known as the Knowledge Is Power Program, has had more success than any other large educational organization in raising the achievement of low-income students, both nationally and in the District. But many good educators, burned by similarly hopeful stories in the past, have wondered whether KIPP were for real.

As Gov. Pat McCrory begins his first term, I hope he will fulfill his election night promise to "bring this state together." One critical way he can do this - and at the same time improve the long-term health of our state - is by focusing on public education.

A chant resembling a rally at a college stadium rang from a first-grade classroom at the Baltimore charter school KIPP Harmony Academy. "M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D," the children sang, pumping their fists. "Maryland will win!"

KIPP Nashville executive director Randy Dowell said he's willing to open the schools under the state's supervision, though he'd prefer to work with the local district. "The schools we operate are Metro Schools, and we've always been very proud to be part of the MNPS family," Dowell said. "We'd be excited these new schools could be opened with MNPS, but either way we're excited."

The expiring lease comes at just the right time for the national network that runs the nearby Kipp Tech Valley Charter School, which opened 11 years ago and currently enrolls 299 students in grades 5-8. This summer, Kipp will move its middle school across the street and into the space Green Tech currently occupies and then open an elementary school in its old space. The elementary school will start with 100 kindergartners in the fall, and add one grade each year until it's serving about 500 students across grades K-4 by the 2020-21 school year. The principal, Maya Tucci, attended Guilderland public schools. She has worked for the Kipp school network in Albany and New York City for nine years.