New fund helps low-income students meet costs of private schools

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 27, 1998 | by Laura R. Vanderkam

Investment banker Theodore J. Forstmann and Wal-Mart heir John Walton have announced a $200 million Children's Scholarship Fund, or CSF, to provide money for private-school tuition to 50,000 low-income children across the nation.

"John and I and all our partners across the country are thrilled to be helping out children who have so far been deprived of equal opportunities in education," says Forstmann. "We have found that there is a huge demand for access to quality education, and we hope that our support will encourage a more competitive educational environment to benefit all of America's children."

The fund is an outgrowth of the Washington Scholarship Fund, founded by former Department of Education analyst Douglas Dewey. Interest in alternatives to public schools encouraged the philanthropists to take tile effort nationwide, Forstmann and Walton have put $100 million into the fund themselves and found matching local donors for programs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and Jersey City, N.J.

But a full 80 percent of the money will be donated to 30 to 50 cites across the United States The fund has sent application packets to 300 city halls, and it plans to announce recipient cities in September. A minimum of 50,000 partial scholarships of $2,000 to $3,000 will be awarded through lotteries next spring.

In a letter to the fund, President Clinton praised the organization for "helping to widen the circle of educational opportunity." Wrote Clinton: "Too many of our young people grow up in environments that offer them little or no encouragement to conceive, pursue or achieve their dreams. By reaching out to low-income families and supporting their investment in education, CSF assists some of our country's neediest children."

Forstmann, chairman and CEO of the fund, is an advocate of school choice and has branded public schools a monopoly. But Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argues that file nation's focus should remain on public schools.

"Ninety percent of American children are in public schools and will remain in public schools," she says. "There aren't going to be seats for 50 million children in the private schools."

Clint Bolick, litigation director at tile Institute for Justice and an advocate of school choice, believes competition will help public schools.

"When poor kids are able to walk out the doors of failing schools, it provides a tremendous incentive for schools to improve," says Bolick, who hailed the $200 million scholarship fund as a breakthrough.

Other school-choice groups, such as; CEO America, fund programs in cities around the country. CEO America recently awarded San Antonio a $50 million voucher program that will give a scholarship to every one of the 14,551 students in the city's poorest district.