CSF Celebrates National School Choice Week

This week’s second annual National School Choice Week has been a resounding success, shining a spotlight on the need for effective education options for all children. Events in every state have drawn national figures including Bill Cosby, Dick Morris, and James Carville in support of parental choice, governors have issued proclamations, and thousands of Americans have come together in the name of giving parents a voice for choice in their children’s education.

At Children’s Scholarship Fund, we wholeheartedly applaud the support parental choice is enjoying. We believe that parents are the first educators of their children and they should be empowered to choose a high quality school for their children regardless of their income or zip code, and we are proud that since our inception more than 123,000 low-income children have attended private school with CSF scholarships worth more than $483 million.

As CSF’s Co-Founder Ted Forstmann said, “Every child, regardless of their parents’ income, should have access to a quality education – an education that will not only prepare them for successful private lives, but help them to build cohesive communities and a strong democracy. We believe if you give parents a choice, you will give their children a chance.”

As School Choice Week wraps up, please take a moment to read about all the week’s activities, and make a plan to support parental choice in education all year long.

Catch up with the latest CSF Newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The latest CSF newsletter is hot off the presses.

Some of the newsletter highlights include:

• A tribute to CSF Co-Founder Ted Forstmann;
• Updates from our partners across the nation;
• Photos from a recent CSF alumni event;
• A reminder about our Pamella Roland online auction, and
• A feature on St. George’s Independent School in Memphis.

Remembering Joe Robert

By CSF President Darla Romfo

All of us at Children’s Scholarship Fund (CSF) were deeply saddened to hear that Joseph E. Robert Jr. passed away this Wednesday, December 7^th.

Joe was a dear friend to CSF. Serving on our board of advisors since the early days, Joe’s leadership of the Washington Scholarship Fund provided us with a strong partner in the nation’s capital for many years. Joe’s fighting spirit never wavered when it came to the education of needy children. He passionately believed in parental choice and was a key force in ensuring the continuation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which this year is helping more than 1,600 children attend DC private schools. His staunch support of children’s causes, most especially through Fight for Children, the organization he founded, has made a difference in the education and futures of thousands of DC children and their families.

We offer our sincere condolences to Joe’s sons, Joe and Luke, to the rest of the Robert family, and to Joe’s many friends and colleagues in education circles and beyond. He was an inspiration to me personally, and the positive effect he has had on us all will continue to be felt for years to come.

 

Ted, You Will Be Greatly Missed

By CSF President Darla Romfo

In the midst of the sadness, I have loved reading all that has been written about our friend and co-founder Ted Forstmann since his passing on Sunday. His contributions to the world of finance, philanthropy, and education reform are well known by now. I feel very fortunate to have known him on a slightly more personal level through my work at the Children’s Scholarship Fund. As one friend summed it up for me today, “Ted cared about education and philanthropy way before all the stars started making pledges. He was a true pioneer with some steadfast values. And he had such clarity about what was fundamentally right.”

Perhaps that is the character trait that is most admired–his clarity and conviction about what was fundamentally right. He taught me that you have to get the first things right or things will eventually fall apart. From that conviction was born the Children’s Scholarship Fund. He wanted to change what wasn’t fundamentally right in education. Ted knew that parents are the first educators of their children and that if you empower them they will try to do the best that they can for their children. If you don’t honor that truth, things will break down. Of course he was right. He touched a chord with parents who overwhelmingly responded by applying for partial scholarships and telling him they were eternally grateful for the opportunity.

I often wrote Ted notes to pass along something that a child or a parent had said or something that had happened on a visit to a school. I remember writing to Ted in a note at one point telling him that he would not know on this side of heaven all the good he has done. Well, my mentor and friend, now you and John both know all the good you have done. Please watch over us, our work, and all our kids. We love you and we will miss you.

John Kirtley on Ted Forstmann’s Legacy

Tributes to CSF’s co-founder Ted Forstmann have been pouring in today. redefinED has a touching piece by John Kirtley, Chairman of Florida’s Step Up for Students, about his experience working with Ted and CSF to form a CSF partner program in Tampa Bay – and how CSF was the “spark” for tax credit and voucher programs in many states.

Just below Mr. Kirtley’s piece, you can also find a post by CSF President Darla Romfo on CSF and the promising students we support.

 

Remembering Ted Forstmann

Today, Children’s Scholarship Fund mourns the loss of our co-founder and co-chair Theodore J. (Ted) Forstmann.

Please visit our main website, www.scholarshipfund.org, where you can read more about Ted’s life and legacy.

CSF Hits the Airwaves

CSF President Darla Romfo was interviewed yesterday on The Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft Show, which airs on WLS-AM in Chicago. If you weren’t in Chicagoland to catch the interview live, you can listen here.

CSF in Today’s Wall Street Journal

Be sure to read Daniel Henninger’s column about Children’s Scholarship Fund in today’s Wall Street Journal. The article, “Forstmann’s Not So Little Idea,” recounts the story of how Ted Forstmann and John Walton founded CSF on the belief that parents should be actively involved in their children’s education:

Mr. Forstmann has long argued that all the money dumped into public education budgets misses the element most crucial to the schools’ success: active parental involvement. His solution to getting them in the game has been requiring the parents to contribute between 25% and 75% of the scholarship award, based on need. That’s it. The parents can pick any private school they desire.

You can read the entire article here.

Parent Power!

Check out this great Education Next piece from Bruno Manno about how grassroots parent groups are making gains and demanding better schools and more choices for their children.

Empowering parents with the ability to choose good schools (as well as the information they need to determine the best school for their child) is absolutely vital, since they are the first educators of their children. It’s inspiring to see parents  mobilizing and using their “parent power” to become involved and fully engaged in their children’s education.

John E. Coons on parental authority

redefinED has a great post on parental authority by John E. Coons. co-founder of the American Center for School Choice at Berkeley. What Coons says about the value of parents at all income levels making choices for how their children are educated (and the negative effects of parents not having choices) is borne out in our conversations with CSF parents who are empowered to choose schools for their children.

The consequence of allowing strangers to make educational choices for children is damage to the family and the broader society. The American Center for School Choice wants to bring this school choice debate to the center of our political spectrum around what is broadly recognized as a centrist and established American value—parents have authority for their children.