Where do you invest? How do you choose where to put your money? What kind of returns do you seek? When I was CEO of SunAmerica, one of the largest financial services companies in the nation, investors seeking these answers came to me every day. I always responded that investors need to take a close look at the leadership and management of the companies they were considering.

Today, as the founder of The Broad Foundation, I strongly advocate that we scrutinize the leadership and management of our nation's public schools. Why? The superintendents that run our school districts are in charge of our greatest investment - our children. And so, we must have school district leadership and management so that we can ensure our education investment in our nation's children is paying off by preparing the next generation for prosperous, fulfilling lives.

A quick comparison with a private company might be instructive. Let's take a look at some of the numbers.

The superintendents of our nation's largest urban public school systems are in charge of educating one in four of America's children. In Los Angeles, the Superintendent runs a $9 billion enterprise each year. By comparison, the extremely successful Nike Corporation also reported revenue of $9 billion in fiscal year 2000.

The average tenure for an urban superintendent is just over two years. The Chairman of Nike has guided that great company for almost 30 consecutive years.

The traditional route for a superintendent begins with a teaching position. Most superintendents work their way up over the course of 30 years. 98% of all urban district superintendents start as teachers. By contrast, the Nike CEO was a certified public accountant and a business administration professor prior to founding his company.

The Los Angeles Unified School District employs over 63,000 adults - teachers, principals, janitors, central office administrators, etc ...

The Nike Corporation- with the same annual revenue base as Los Angeles's school district -- employs just under 23,000 people. That is almost two-thirds fewer people to manage.

In Los Angeles's school district, there are almost 800 schools - all of which are owned and operated by the district. Nike's 10-K lists 471 principal properties around the globe -- 14 are owned, the rest of the properties are leased. This includes administrative offices, sales and showrooms, distribution facilities, production and manufacturing facilities and retail outlets.

As you can see, the job of superintendent of a large urban public school district is in many ways very similar to that of a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Superintendents are responsible for personnel, facilities, financial planning, human resources, management, budgeting, organizational development and - above all else, superintendents are responsible for the education of our children. Superintendents are responsible for the most valuable investment in our society - our children's education. This separates the school district superintendent from the rest - our nation's entire future rests on the decisions made by superintendents of our nation's public school systems.

That's why it's so important that our urban public schools have the best and the brightest leaders at their helm. Our nation's education system needs more highly qualified leaders - from all walks of life - to step forward and meet the challenge of investing in our children's future by becoming superintendents. Make no mistake, I am not saying that a teacher can't become a superintendent. But I firmly believe that superintendents need training in management, labor relations, systems and finance to effectively run a large urban school district.

Yoyo Ma and Isaac Stern don't manage the symphonies in which they perform and conduct. That would be a waste of their extraordinary time and talent. Andy Warhol did not try to curate a museum. He used his tremendous talent to do what he did best - create amazing modern art. We should not expect teachers to suddenly become expert managers simply because they are gifted at instructing children.

This dilemma is the very heart of the challenge that education faces today. Public education must look beyond the traditional way of managing its school districts. Administration and governance of our nation's schools must change dramatically in order to better serve the children in classrooms and schools across America.

I believe the only way to change the prevailing culture in our public education system is to challenge the status quo. Supporting new and innovative ideas and rewarding success are two ways to achieve this. We don't need to dismantle our public education system. But we do need to radically improve our nation's public schools by tackling the issues that are the root of the problem. That is exactly what we are announcing today will do. Our children cannot and should not face the challenges of tomorrow with yesterday's ideas.

Three years ago, my family established The Broad Foundation in 1999. Our mission is to dramatically improve governance, management and labor relations in large, urban school districts nationwide. Today, The Broad Foundation and Governor John Engler are launching the Broad Center for Superintendents to prepare the next generation of urban superintendents.

Our goal is to identify, prepare and support talented business, non-profit and government executives - along with traditional education leaders -- in urban public school districts to serve as Superintendents. Our approach is unlike any other. The Urban Superintendents Academy is structured as a part-time executive leadership development program. The preparation program is designed to meet individual needs and is focused on developing the critical skills needed to be a successful urban superintendent.

Participants in the Academy will not need to leave their current jobs immediately. They will attend trainings for a number of weekends over a ten-month period. Fellowships, including tuition, travel and all program-related expenses, will be fully covered by The Broad Center. At the end of the training, The Broad Center will help place participants as senior executives and CEOs of urban school districts.

This is a direct infusion of leadership at the management level of our nation's urban public school districts. We are building an executive leadership corps to protect and to grow our nation's investment in children.

We will not measure our success in the number of schools with management-trained superintendents - although this will be a good indicator. Our success will be measured by dramatically raising student achievement for children - regardless of race or economic background -- in our urban public schools.

We are not short-term investors. We are looking to the future and we are investing in education.

Allow me to introduce my partner in this venture. He is a longtime friend from the state where I grew up -- Michigan. He is a recognized leader among our nation's Governors and a passionate advocate for improving education. Like me, he believes that educating our children is a national priority, and that it comes before party affiliation. That is why I stand shoulder to shoulder with him today. I am a lifelong Democrat, and he is a Republican. But investing in our children's education in order to raise the level of achievement in our nation's urban public schools puts no political party first. When it comes to educating our children - we not only need to be color blind, but party blind.

Please welcome, my friend and partner in The Broad Center, Michigan Governor John Engler.