[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 77 (Monday, June 15, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6327-S6328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, on many occasions, I have come to the 
Senate floor to talk about the importance of parental control and 
involvement in a child's education. Study after study has confirmed 
that parental involvement is the single most important element in 
educational achievement.
  One way to allow parents more control over and involvement in their 
children's education is to give them more choices of where to send 
their children to school. Choice empowers parents. It puts them in the 
driver's seat instead of the nickel seats. I believe we want parents in 
those front seats.

[[Page S6328]]

  Education is an important tool that our children need in order to 
survive and be successful in our society. It is sad to realize that for 
too many children in too many families, a safe, structured and 
challenging education is out of reach. The public schools in many of 
our major cities simply cannot or do not provide adequate education, 
while a private or parochial education is too costly for most families 
of modest means.
  On the other hand, it is encouraging when individuals in our society 
step forward to provide the means for better educational opportunities 
for our nation's underprivileged children. When those in the private 
sector, through their charitable giving, open the door for kids to 
receive a high quality education, those individuals are to be 
commended.
  I am pleased to say that last week, two very generous and 
compassionate Americans gave new hope to thousands of families across 
the country who want the same thing all of us want--the best possible 
education for their children.
  Ted Forstmann and John Walton are businessmen, entrepreneurs and 
philanthropists. On June 9, they launched the Children's Scholarship 
Fund, which will provide scholarships to bright and deserving children 
from low-income families across the nation to help their parents send 
them to any private or parochial school they're academically qualified 
to attend--from kindergarten right through high school. Thanks to these 
individuals, new educational opportunities will now be available to 
thousands of youngsters that were not available before.
  These two civic-minded Americans have given the fund quite a start, 
with an initial contribution of $100 million dollars. Over the summer, 
they will select cities to become partners with the fund, lining up 
donors in each city to match their initial generosity. That will allow 
this new and exciting program to distribute more than $200 million in 
scholarships in more than a dozen cities, with each scholarship being 
an opportunity for a child to prepare for a better and brighter future.
  This national program is modeled after--and really inspired by--an 
effort Mr. Forstmann and Mr. Walton launched here in the city of 
Washington, D.C. earlier this year. Together they donated $6 million to 
the Washington Scholarship Fund, which recently awarded scholarships to 
more than 1,000 students from the troubled District of Columbia public 
schools. Washington is one of about thirty privately-funded scholarship 
programs in the country. The fact that there are so many of these 
programs speaks volumes, I think, about the state of the public schools 
in many of our cities.
  I mention the Washington program because I think it's a good example 
of what the national effort is all about. First, the Washington 
Scholarship Fund is locally-based and locally-run. Mr. Forstmann is 
right when he insists that each program must have strong involvement 
from local officials, community leaders, local businesses and anyone 
else who wants to help kids obtain the best education. I have always 
believed that local neighborhoods and communities are in the best 
position to create solutions to meet the specific needs of individuals 
in their communities.
  The Children's Scholarship Fund is already in contact with more than 
300 mayors from all around the country. This is the first step in 
selecting partners who know what's needed in their community and who 
will support this program financially and with their hard work.
  But perhaps more important than the scholarships themselves is what 
they represent. it's important--and maybe even a bit sad--to note that 
more than seventy-five hundred families here in the Nation's Capitol 
applied for those 1,000 scholarships. It took a lottery to give them 
out. Mr. Forstmann has said he never dreamed the demand would be so 
overwhelming.
  Who are these families? They're families whose children are trapped 
in public school systems that offer them no choices. If students only 
have one choice of where to attend school, they are locked into that 
school and don't have the capacity to say I am going to do better, I 
will go elsewhere.
  On the other hand, when students have more choices of where to attend 
school, they will have the ability to receive a higher quality, more 
rigorous education. The Children's Scholarship Fund provides children 
and their families with more educational choice.
  I believe that providing more educational choices for families can 
even help our nation's public schools, because they will understand 
they are no longer the exclusive provider of education in their 
community. They will have to start becoming the creative supplier of 
what it is that students need. When you have diversity and pluralism in 
a school system by providing more choices for students, this creates 
energy, creativity, and quality when institutions know that they have 
to do their best for to compete for students.
  I commend Mr. Forstmann and Mr. Walton for providing the opportunity 
for our nation's children to have greater choices of where to receive 
their education, giving them the chance to learn as much as their minds 
and hard work will allow.
  Education is an investment in future citizens, future leaders, the 
future work force of America. Ted Forstmann and John Walton have made a 
profound investment in the nation's future, one that is worthy of our 
admiration and gratitude.

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