Steve Perry, CNN education contributor and founder of Capital Preparatory Schools has landed his own daytime talk show with FOX stations, distributed through CBS Television. Perry’s new show, “Breakthrough With Dr. Steve Perry,” began airing on Jan. 7.
Perry assured that “Breakthrough With Dr. Steve Perry” will remove the monotonous stereotypes of Black people’s struggle or “showing out” behavior that the public is used to seeing on television. On the talk show, Perry, delivery includes a mix of tough love and humor, said he offers counsel to guests — parents, couples, teens, and singles — who may be in crisis or facing a life-altering decision.
“Everyone has something that they need to break through,” Perry said. “We need to recognize that the time that we’re spending trying to get past this breakthrough is robbing us of the opportunity to truly enjoy what we were put on this earth to do.”
“I don’t want to look at garish examples of humanity and think, ‘thank God I’m better than they are,’” he added. “So what you will see on the show is what would likely happen if I sat down and talked to you and we had an honest conversation about some of the things that you’re working on.”
The educator is known for being called on by Oprah Winfrey, Steve Harvey, Bishop T.D. Jakes, and Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, to give insights to parents and children.
Outside of filming for the show, Perry is also focused on opening Capital Prep Bronx Charter School in New York; his fourth school.
“Our first Capital Prep Magnet School is in Hartford Connecticut opened in 2005,” Perry said. “Capital Prep Harbor School located in Bridgeport, Connecticut opened in 2015. We opened Capital Prep Harlem School in 2016 located in Harlem. In 2017 we opened our lower school which is the Capital Prep Harbor Lower School in Bridgeport, Connecticut.”
When Perry first opened Capital Prep Magnet School, the educator and CEO said it began a year later than initially planned.
Perry said he could not get community leaders who were elected officials to agree to name the school after a Black woman who is still alive named Elizabeth Horton-Sheff. To Perry, this was outrageous and sounded like “garden-variety hate.”
“I wasn’t naming it after me, I was naming it after a sister who had fought 30 years to get Black, and Latino kids access to quality education,” Perry said. “She had sued the state of Connecticut and won and not for herself, but to get schools established. As a result of her work, half a billion dollars worth of money was raised to be spent in the city of Hartford to educate mostly minority and poor kids.”
At first, Perry was unwilling to compromise the decision of changing the school to another name. He was very persistent and adamant that the school should be named after Sheff.
“Mrs. Sheff pulled me aside, and she said, you know, stop and let it go,” Perry said.
Soon, the CEO came to a compromise and decided to the name the school Capital Prep Magnet School and a room after Sheff with a lot of light among her request.
With the help of parents and the community believing in his vision, Perry was able to build a successful school despite those who were fighting against him.vWithin 12 months of opening, Perry’s Capital Prep Magnet School made it to the U.S. News.
A successful school owned by a Black man, Perry said he wanted to showcase what the power of education can do for children of color.
“You can show people who have been maligned and not believed in for 400 years, if they want to learn, you just got to give them an opportunity by putting them in a good school,” Perry said.
Perry’s journey into advocating for education came from his belief that it’s the most revolutionary thing that someone could do, he said. At once wanting to go into politics, Perry said he soon found out that wasn’t his purpose in life.
Knowing that someone once gave him a chance as a child, Perry knew that if you put education into the minds and hearts of people for whom it was never supposed to be given, or to children that come from historically disadvantaged populations that they too can have a chance at a better life.
“For me, education is a single way out. There’s no other way out,” he said.
While Perry is putting in the work to create a better education for children, he has a strong feeling regarding the education that Black children are receiving. When the speaker first opened his school in Harlem, 99 percent of his students in the sixth grade could not do the math on grade level.
“The public schools as we know them on the front end are the prison pipeline and has been for generations,” Perry said. “We have the majority of kids who are dropping out and being undereducated.”
According to Perry, the system is broken and to fix it; there must be a look at the data of the number of students failing tests such as the SAT or inability to read and do the math on grade level.
Perry also believes that adjustments need to be made at schools of who can teach students, and close failed schools and replicate.
After working with Winfrey on a segment about young girls without fathers, opening a school with P.Diddy, and helping Harvey with his recent book, Jump: Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance, Perry said he hopes to continue opening up more schools and keeping the schools he already has successfully run.
