Kanye West says his secretive Donda Academy could turn children into ‘geniuses’

Kanye West has said he “absolutely” wants his children to attend Donda Academy, the private Christian preparatory school he opened earlier this year.

The rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye, sat down with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis on Thursday for his first primetime interview since his divorce from Kim Kardashian. The entire interview will air on ABC News Live Prime at 7pm on Thursday.

During a brief portion of the interview, which was aired on Good Morning America, West spoke about the “gospel school” he named in honour of his late mother, Donda West.

“I want my kids to go to Donda and I have to fight for a say so,” he told Davis.

The private school, which began taking applications for Pre-K to 12th grade students via its website in May, is located in Simi Valley, California. According to the Donda Academy website, the school’s mission is to “prepare students to become the next generation of leaders, thinkers and innovators by providing them with a world-class education that includes a rigorous core curriculum, and an emphasis on sustainability, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving”.

"So many schools are made to set kids up for industries that don’t even matter anymore," West said, adding that the school focuses “on practical skills” such as engineering, computer programming, and farming. Ye also said the school has tutors who could "actually turn your kids into, like, geniuses."

"And if your kids are geniuses…they’re three grade levels ahead," he added.

The daily schedule for students at Donda Academy includes a “full school worship; core classes of language arts, math and science; lunch and recess; enrichment courses including world language, visual art, film, choir, and parkour”.

Donda Academy opened its doors to around 100 students in late August. However, admission to the private school apparently requires a $15,000 tuition fee and signing a non-disclosure agreement, according to Rolling Stone.

This was not the first time West has publicly pleaded for his children to attend Donda Academy. Earlier this month, the Yeezy designer expressed his concerns about his children’s schooling on social media. In the Instagram post, the rapper shared a screenshot of a text message he seemingly sent to ex-wife Kim Kardashian, who had asked him to “please stop”.

“No, we need to talk in person, you don’t have say so of where the kids go to school. Why you get say say [sic]? Cause you half white?” his response read.

The following day, West shared a second screenshot of his text exchange with Kardashian, which showed West suggesting their children spend three days at their Los Angeles school and two days at Donda Academy.

“This is co-parenting,” he captioned the since-deleted post.

West shares four children with ex-wife Kardashian: North, nine, Saint, seven, Chicago, four, and Psalm, three. The rapper and the reality star were married for nearly seven years, before Kardashian filed for divorce in February 2021. In March, Kardashian was declared legally single by a California state judge.