Andre Agassi is a high-school dropout. Back then he couldn't  have imagined that after his illustrious pro tennis career, he would devote himself to making sure others didn't drop out.

And now that the tennis legend-turned-education hero has had success with his Las Vegas charter school, the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, his ambitions have broadened.

"I believed I could change the dialogue of the resources that we provide and the accountability and transparency that goes along with those resources," Agassi said in a conference call prior to the BNP Paribas Showdown. "I thought with one successful school, I might be able to help legislate some change in my state that could swing the bar enough to inspire some changes in our public education system and then maybe create a national dialogue."

That hasn't necessarily been the case, however, as Agassi has run into one hurdle after the other. His biggest challenge has been figuring out how to take his success in his hometown and expand what he's done.

"One of my greatest pains has been the children that I couldn't help. I have 650 kids in my school and over 1,000 on a waiting list. Over 10 years I've been grinding to figure out a way [to grow].

"Just when I gave up hope, I got an interesting phone call a year and a half ago," he said. "The single greatest impediment to the growth of charter school operators are facilities themselves. What I've gotten onto now is figuring out how to facilitate facilities."

What Agassi means is that he's now involved with helping construct school sites where these charter schools can live.

"We're going to come out of the blocks shortly...in Philadelphia and move out throughout the Northeast," Agassi explained. "I have figured out how to build tens of thousands of seats over the next five years and I look forward to being able to talk about that more down the road."

For Agassi, the entire process has been a learning one, which is exactly what he hoped for in the beginning.

"What I wanted to really use my academy to do was to be a laboratory of sorts. It's turned out to be that," he said. "I think I have learned more than the children have learned."