[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 144 (Thursday, October 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H9474-H9475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PRESIDENT IS URGED TO GIVE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SCHOOL CHILDREN A 
                      CHANCE AT QUALITY EDUCATION

  (Mr. GINGRICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I simply wanted to rise in praise of two 
Americans who are trying to help the children of Washington. Ted 
Forstmann and John Walton are giving $3 million each to a scholarship 
fund for low-income children in the District of Columbia.
  I think every Member of the House should look at this. Here are two 
people who do not live in Washington, but they love their national 
capital and they believe that the children of their national capital 
should have an opportunity to go to a school that is safe, drug-free, 
and where real learning occurs and where these children have a chance 
for a better future.
  I think for Ted Forstmann and John Walton to go out of their way to 
help the national capital is a good thing, but I think it also sends a 
signal to the President that everybody in public housing should have 
the opportunity to choose a school for their children that is safe and 
disciplined and has education, and that that should not just be 
reserved to the two highest elected officials living in public housing, 
but everybody in public housing ought to have that opportunity.
  Mr. Speaker, I would argue that we can have a chance in the bill we 
passed just 2 weeks ago to give 2,000 children an opportunity to have a 
scholarship to let their parents have the right to choose, and I would 
urge the President: ``Please accept the chance for the poorest children 
of our national capital to have a chance to go to school that is safe 
and drug-free with real learning.''

               [From the Washington Times, Oct. 14, 1997]

                      Voucher Fund Gets $6 Million

                          (By Susan Ferrechio)

       Two private businessmen have donated $6 million to a small 
     D.C. school voucher agency that will use the cash to help pay 
     for 1,000 low-income city students to attend private schools.
       Theodore J. Forstmann, one of the donors, said at a news 
     conference yesterday he was donating his share of the money 
     because the D.C. public school system is ``really awful'' and 
     he wants to help some escape a notoriously troubled system 
     where they cannot learn or get ahead. He said he wants to 
     encourage ``citizens taking responsibility for problems and 
     taking action.''
       The Washington Scholarship Fund, a privately financed 
     charity, pays for 460 D.C. children to attend private school 
     this year.
       The agency will use the first of three $2 million infusions 
     to pay up to $1,700 in tuition to each eligible student, 
     beginning in September 1998. The students now served by the 
     fund come from households that earn an average of $18,000 
     each year.
       John Walton, like Mr. Forstmann a business investor and a 
     believer in vouchers, is matching the $3 million donation to 
     the agency, which was started in 1993 by a former Department 
     of Education analyst.
       ``There was a real need in Washington, D.C., to help the 
     children,'' said Mr. Forstmann, who is chairman of the 
     scholarship fund's board of directors.
       Mr. Forstmann, of New York, and Mr. Walton, of San Diego, 
     have donated money to voucher programs in other cities, 
     including a program in New York that helps pay private-school 
     tuition for 40,000 low-income students.
       The donation comes as Congress is debating a plan to spend 
     public money on private school vouchers for D.C. students.
       The House next week will resume debate on a plan in the 
     D.C. Budget Bill to spend $7 million next year on 2,000 
     scholarships for low-income students to attend private 
     schools.
       That plan, which would offer up to $3,200 a year to pay for 
     tuition, books or transportation to private schools, is 
     supported by many Republicans but opposed by President Bill 
     Clinton.
       Washington Scholarship Fund president and founder Douglas 
     D. Dewey said students are chosen by lottery to receive money 
     from the agency, which pays up to half of one year's tuition.
       He said the agency, which is run by three employees, will 
     raise an additional $800,000 this year.
       Lora Watkins, a secretary for the Department of Commerce, 
     took her three daughters out of Watkins Elementary in 
     Southeast this year. She pays $4,600 in tuition to send them 
     to a nearby Catholic school, Our Lady Queen of Peace. The 
     scholarship fund subsidizes $2,300 for her tuition costs.
       ``I was just desperate to get them out of the public 
     school, no matter what,'' said Mrs. Watkins. ``They're 
     learning a whole lot more, it's just totally different. The 
     education is so much better.''
       Enrollment in the city school system of 78,500 students is 
     declining, school buildings are crumbling, and students test 
     poorly.
       The system has been under reform since November by an 
     Emergency Board of Trustees and chief executive officer 
     appointed by the D.C. financial control board.
                                                                    ____


               [From the Washington Post, Oct. 17, 1997]

                What a Difference Having a Chance Makes

                         (By William Raspberry)

       Ted Forstmann isn't much of a philosopher--quite the 
     refreshing opposite. He comes across, over lunch, as a down-
     to-earth rich guy who, for reasons even he has trouble 
     articulating, just wants to give something back.
       So he and his friend and fellow entrepreneur, John Walton, 
     are giving $3 million each to a scholarship fund for low-
     income children of the District.
       He's sure it's the right thing to do, even though he is 
     pretty much inventing his philanthropic largess on the fly.
       ``You've heard that biblical passage about it being easier 
     for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a 
     rich man to get into heaven?'' said Forstmann, co-founder and 
     senior partner of the $16 billion New York investment firm 
     Forstmann Little & Co. ``I think what that's saying is that 
     if you achieve success and don't do something worthwhile with 
     it, then--well, you're just sort of pathetic.''
       He's trying to do something worthwhile with his success. 
     But why schools? In part, he says, because of what he learned 
     at his first job, at a reform school, and in part because he 
     believes schools--Andover, Yale, Columbia--have been a huge 
     factor in his own success. Why D.C.?
       Why not D.C.? Besides, Douglas Dean Dewey, who runs the 
     Washington Scholarship Fund, asked him to help.
       Forstmann, athletically trim at 57, has just left a press 
     conference announcing the

[[Page H9475]]

     gift, and he's trying to talk about what motivated him and 
     Walton to do it. ``I worry about kids who are born into the 
     world without a choice,'' he says over a huge swordfish steak 
     at Washington's Capital Grille. ``It's like being born 
     already dead. There are too many children like that, and I 
     just feel we have to do what we can for them.''
       He is just a little weary of critics pointing out the 
     inadequacy of his effort, which amounts to a partial 
     scholarship (one-third to two-thirds of a tuition) for K-8 
     youngsters who are accepted into private or parochial schools 
     and then win a lottery for the awards. The 1,000 lucky 
     winners are ensured of scholarship help for at least three 
     years, and probably through high school.
       ``Sure, I wish we could do more--and over time, we will.'' 
     he says. ``Sure, the parents will have to put up some money 
     [for application fees, uniforms, books] they many have. And 
     sure, what we are doing won't fix the public schools. But I'm 
     not going to beat myself up for what I can't do.''
       Nor will this lifelong bachelor concern himself over the 
     politics of his effort. ``I'm not allied with the people who 
     are pushing vouchers. I'm not opposed to them, necessarily. 
     This is something separate.
       ``Let me put it this way. I've been what happens to people 
     when they feel they have no choice in their lives. The kids I 
     worked with at the reform school--I was an assistant hockey 
     coach--wouldn't cheer if the game was close, or if they were 
     behind. But when they were up 10-0, they would raise the 
     roof. They had lost so many times, they couldn't let anybody 
     see they cared about losing. What was true for those kids in 
     sports is true for the kids we're trying to help in life. We 
     want them to have the courage to try to succeed, to meet high 
     standards.''
       Is he afraid of skimming the public schools of some of 
     their brightest children (and most committed parents)?
       ``I see it differently,'' he says, ``It's the people who 
     are defending the status quo who ought to be called to task. 
     I look at it the way the kids themselves look at it. I talk 
     to them, and they say maybe about one-tenth of their friends 
     will make it for sure and, with help, maybe half of the rest. 
     The others don't want to try. But then maybe one of those 
     will look at the others and say, well, maybe I'll give it a 
     shot. In other words, you start with those you can help, and 
     with luck pretty soon you've got a majority. The ways things 
     are going now, the majority is on the other end--and they 
     keep the brighter kids from trying.''
       Forstmann, who recently was named man of the year by the 
     Inner City Fund of New York, of which he is a director, 
     doesn't particularly like the limelight. The only reason he 
     agreed to the news conference, he says, is the hope that 
     maybe his effort might inspire other people of means to join 
     in.
       ``There are just so many kids who need a boost that they 
     aren't getting, the way things are now. The point is, there's 
     nothing wrong with the kids. What's wrong is the situation in 
     which they find themselves. We can complain about it, or 
     people of goodwill can step up to the plate and try to do 
     something about it.''
       Forstmann is stepping up.

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