Billionaire philanthropist Ted Forstmann, who made his name on Wall Street through friendly corporate takeovers, went on Oprah last week to boost his privately funded school-choice charity, which may be blossoming into something of a friendly takeover of the nation's troubled urban schools.
With partners John Walton (of Wal-Mart) and Ron Burkel, Forstmann set up the Children's Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships to underprivileged children in Washington, D.C., to attend private school. The amounts aren't lavish -- up to $ 1,500 or so, depending on need -- but the demand has been overwhelming. Last year, as THE SCRAPBOOK reported at the time, the fund dispensed 1,000 scholarships via a lottery that attracted more than 7,500 entrants. But that was just the beginning.
Forstmann's Oprah appearance with a mother of three children who have received scholarships attracted a flood of calls from both potential donors and scholarship applicants. The success of the D.C. program, and the donations it has attracted, will allow the Children's Scholarship Fund to spread. Similar programs are now planned in 40 cities, benefiting as many as 40,000 students in the next school year.
Meanwhile, Arizona's supreme court upheld that state's school-choice tax credit against objections that it violated the separation of church and state because money might trickle down to parochial schools. The court held that the beneficiaries of a tax credit are tax-payers and their children, not the schools they attend. Inch by inch, the battle for school choice is being won.