[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S10711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      STUDENT-SPONSOR PARTNERSHIP

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, Adlai E. Stevenson remarked of 
Eleanor Roosevelt that ``She would rather light candles than curse the 
darkness.'' The same can be said of my dear friend, Peter M. Flanigan. 
I rise to call to the Senate's attention the Student-Sponsor 
Partnership, a program for troubled students that Mr. Flanigan started 
in 1986. Private donors help pay the tuition for New York City high 
school students whose backgrounds include poverty, poor grades, and 
discipline problems so that they may attend Catholic schools.
  In 1984 Mr. Flanigan promised a class of sixth-graders that if they 
finished high school he would pay for their college education. It soon 
became clear that even this was insufficient incentive for many of the 
participants to complete high school, and Mr. Flanigan realized that a 
different approach was needed. He learned that Catholic schools had 
higher graduation rates, and so concluded that he would help students 
attend such schools by subsidizing their tuition. Mr. Flanigan also 
realized the importance of providing each student with a mentor to 
provide encouragement and counsel.
  This program works; 75 percent of the participants graduate in 4 
years, and 90 percent eventually go on to college. These are remarkable 
statistics for a group made up of troubled students. I congratulate 
Peter Flanigan for all his concern and efforts, and I ask unanimous 
consent that an article in the September 12 New York Times on the 
Student-Sponsor Partnership Program be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

               [From the New York Times, Sept. 12, 1996]

   Private Program for Troubled Students Echoes Catholic School Plan

                            (By Mirta Ojito)

       Two years ago, Sean Kendell Winn was the kind of student 
     who is at the heart of the plan advocated this week by Mayor 
     Rudolph W. Giuliani to send some public school students to 
     Roman Catholic schools.
       A Bronx student who would get into fights and end up 
     suspended, Sean was accepted by a Catholic school in his 
     first year of high school. Almost all expenses were paid by 
     private donors.
       ``My life,'' Sean said yesterday, ``is much nicer now.''
       Sean, now a 16-year-old junior at All Hallows High School 
     with an 85 average, is a beneficiary of a 10-year-old private 
     program, Student-Sponsor Partnership, which was created by 
     Peter M. Flanigan, an investment banker.
       The partnership, which has helped 825 students enrolled in 
     18 Catholic schools to graduate since 1986, bears striking 
     similarities to a proposal recently made by the Roman 
     Catholic Archdiocese of New York and, since Sunday, backed by 
     the Mayor.
       Under the Archdiocese's plan, Catholic schools would 
     educate 1,000 of the city school system's worst students, 
     providing both secular and religious instruction. Their 
     tuition would be paid by private businesses.
       After some board members cited Constitutional concerns 
     about having school employees acting as admissions counselors 
     for Roman Catholic schools, Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew said 
     yesterday that the Board of Education would not compile lists 
     of eligible students for the program advocated by Mr. 
     Giuliani.
       But the Chancellor's spokeswoman said that guidance 
     counselors would continue to advise students to seek 
     scholarships to private schools, and would release school 
     records for students applying for scholarships. The public 
     schools have been giving that help to Student-Sponsor 
     Partnership for 10 years.
       ``We hope that what we are doing could serve as a blueprint 
     for what the Mayor is proposing,'' said Mayree Clark, the 
     chairwoman of the partnership's board, who is the director of 
     global research at Morgan Stanley.
       Ms. Clark said 75 percent of the program's students 
     graduate in four years and 90 percent go on to college. Omar 
     Antigua, a 20-year-old junior at Carnegie Mellon University 
     in Pittsburgh, is one of them.
       ``They opened up so many doors for me, I couldn't even 
     begin to count them,'' said Mr. Antigua, the third child of 
     an unemployed immigrant who reared three boys by herself in a 
     tough Bronx neighborhood. ``Where I come from, I'm a 
     rarity.''
       Mary Grace Eapen, the partnership's executive director, 
     said the program works to make students feel special. ``They 
     want discipline, they want order,'' she said. ``They want to 
     have someone in their lives who expects great things from 
     them, and we do.''
       Applicants learn of the program through their eighth-grade 
     guidance counselors or community leaders, Ms. Eapen said. 
     Once a student decides to apply, school counselors or 
     teachers supply test scores, a list of the student's 
     weaknesses and strengths and an analysis of why the student 
     would probably not succeed were he or she to continue in the 
     public school system.
       ``Counselors are very vigilant at spotting the kids that 
     could benefit the most from our help,'' Ms. Eapen said. 
     ``They want what's best for their kids and they know we 
     provide it.''
       Of the thousands of students who apply every year, several 
     hundred are accepted. This year, 345 new students entered the 
     program.
       Although the partnership program is similar to the one 
     advocated by the Mayor, it differs in two ways.
       First, its eligibility requirements are broader: It 
     considers poverty, poor grades and disciplinary problems as 
     qualifications for entry, not simply whether a student has 
     been identified as one of the school system's worst. Second, 
     it provides mentors to guide students in addition to paying 
     their tuitions.
       The partnership has 1,030 students and but is short 150 
     mentors.
       Sponsors pay at least $850 in tuition a year for four 
     years. The rest of a student's tuition, which could be as 
     high as $3,800 is paid by parents, who contribute $30 a 
     month, and money raised from foundations and private 
     businesses.
       The idea for the partnership came about when Mr. Flanigan 
     realized that it took more than the promise of a bright 
     future to make students finish their education, Ms. Eapen 
     said. More than a decade ago, he promised a class of sixth 
     graders that if they finished high school, he would pay for 
     their college education. Despite the incentive, many students 
     dropped out of school.
       The schools, he concluded, were failing the students. About 
     the same time, Mr. Flanigan learned that Roman Catholic 
     schools were more successful in keeping students in the 
     classroom, so he shifted his focus and decided to encourage 
     public school students to attend those private schools. To 
     further increase the students' chances of success, he paired 
     students with mentors.
       The partnership tries to match sponsors with students based 
     on shared interests or experiences, sometimes a difficult 
     goal because most of the students are black or Latino while 
     88 percent of the sponsors are non-Hispanic whites.
       But most of the time, despite cultural and economic 
     differences, a bond is forged. It happened to Sean and his 
     sponsor, James Jurney, a 26-year-old who went to boarding 
     school, lives at Central Park West and works at Morgan 
     Stanley. Their bond is theater. Sean wants to be an actor; 
     Mr. Jurney is interested in television and films.
       ``We go to the theater.'' Mr. Jurney said, ``we talk. He 
     tells me about his girlfriends. I'm his big brother. He's a 
     good kid.''

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