Attention candidates for governor, commissioner of education, the state Legislature and school board: A formula for a successful inner-city school has been found. The answer, according to Academy Prep co- founder Jeff Fortune, is "hours - a lot of hours."

It is axiomatic that a huge commitment of time and resources will result in improving education for urban poor children. Because that is an expensive axiom to translate into action, however, our leaders in Tallahassee have been avoiding acknowledging it for decades. Thanks to Academy Prep, a St. Petersburg-based private school for disadvantaged youth, the truth is now tougher than ever to ignore.

The urban school opened a year ago initially for boys attending fifth and sixth grade. Since then, it has taken a group of impoverished boys from mostly single-parent families who were beginning to fall behind academically in the public schools, and advanced some of them as much as two full grade levels in certain subjects in a period of six months.

As opposed to some of the half-measures and easy bromides proposed by politicians, Academy Prep didn't do it "by (waving) any magic wands," according to the school's director John Effinger. Academy Prep did it by having high expectations for its nearly all-black student body, and by providing the support necessary for these boys to reach their goals.

There are no more than 15 students per class, the school day stretches from 7:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. (that includes time for individual tutoring and homework supervision), school meets six days per week, with required Saturday educational and recreational programs, and there's an 11-month school year. The school, which is tuition-free to its students and is funded by private donations, spent $8,300 per student for this kind of top-rate education last year. That's more than twice what this state spends for each public school student.

Spend the bucks for personal attention and a highly structured environment and, not surprisingly, children thought uneducable can learn. Standardized test scores for Academy Prep's 28 students indicate that from November to May, scores for fifth graders in language arts jumped by two grade levels. For sixth graders, the jump in language arts scores was more than a full grade. Students also did better in math, but because they were initially closer to grade level in mathematics skills, the gains were not as dramatic.

The teachers and administrators of Academy Prep should be roundly applauded for these encouraging results. The cheers, however, hide a tragedy. In Florida, there is no political will to raise the revenue it would take to bring Academy Prep's formula to the tens of thousands of students who need it. There are aspects of Academy Prep's approach that cannot be duplicated in the public schools. But when it comes to educating poor, minority children, Academy Prep has shown us the way. Our leaders just don't want to take us.