In 2007, the case could be made that Rhode Island had, dollar for dollar, the worst-performing public education system in the United States. Despite per-pupil expenditures ranking in the top 10 nationally, the state's 8th graders fared no better than 40th in reading and 33rd in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Only three other states ranked above the national average in dollars spent but below the national average in student outcomes. Rhode Island's Latino 8th graders, the state's largest and most rapidly growing minority population, were the lowest-performing in the nation, and the achievement gap between Latino and white students in the state was among the nation's largest. In the spring of that year, Cumberland mayor Daniel J. McKee posed a question: "What kind of public school system would we have if we could just build it from scratch?" The answer to the mayor's question turned out to be "mayoral academies," highly autonomous, socioeconomically diverse, regional public schools of choice governed by mayor-led boards. The law permitting mayoral academy charter schools freed the schools from Rhode Island's tenure, prevailing wage, and pension laws. It also required the schools to enroll students from both urban and nonurban districts in order to encourage demographic diversity. Michael Magee, co-founder and chief executive officer of Rhode Island Mayoral Academies, describes the process through which thousands of Rhode Island students gained new and far better choices for where to attend school.