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A college drop-out abandons a lucrative tech career for a life of inner-city poverty – and hopes to save an urban school district from oblivion

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He's frustrated that the kids in his neighborhood have to ride buses to school buildings on the other side of the city. On the school board, he would push for a return to community schools where parents and neighbors could be more easily engaged and create a support system for the area children. That means schools would end up more racially segregated. So be it, he says. They'll deal with issues as they arise.

West has been prodded to run for office in the past: twice for City Council, once for a seat in the Missouri Legislature and once for a position on the school board. He has resisted, he says, because he has never seen himself as a politician.

He's no good at telling people what they want to hear. He admires the hopeful leadership style of Barack Obama, but he also counts Harriet Tubman as a role model. She had the kind of focus that defied conventions of the time, he says. In her determination to liberate slaves, he says, she was just as likely to aim her rifle at black people as white. West knows that kind of determination doesn't play well in some camps.

Sitting in his cold, unfinished house on a recent morning, composing an e-mail to supporters, he admits that he's anxious about the political campaign. Then again, he says, he has nothing to lose.

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