The movement towards  privately funded scholarships for children in grades kindergarten through 12  is now [1997] six years old. It takes several forms. There is, for instance, the “in your face” gesture by philanthropist Virginia Gilder in Albany, New York  who offered $2,000 scholarships for three years to all children attending perhaps the worst public school in the state of New York. In another channel the movement flooded into Arizona where people who love children  changed the income tax law so that every individual taxpayer can now donate (and receive a tax credit for) up to $250/year to fund scholarships to attend private schools K-12.

This movement was started in Indianapolis in 1991 by J. Patrick Rooney. He has also begun and funded two very distinct and distinctive approaches to broad-based private funding of private education. His first way of mobilizing private money to permit children in public schools to change to private schools has already become the  national mainstream of the movement. It is called  the “GOLDEN RULE” MODEL.

In 1991 a bill failed in the Indiana legislature to use state revenues to provide scholarships for children to attend schools chosen by their  families.  Rooney was then chairman of the Lawrenceville, Illinois based Golden Rule Insurance Company. He was also one of only three white members of an inner-city church in Indianapolis and knew inner city needs. Rooney was shocked when his state refused to fund private school choice. But he decided that one setback need not hold back businesses and private donors from doing more, a great deal more. So he launched the Choice Trust Charitable Trust. With minimal publicity in the summer of 1991 his program announced funding for 500 scholarships. Ten percent of parents in local public elementary schools asked for applications. A  nation-wide movement was off to the races.

Pat Rooney’s initiative is now known throughout the United States as “The Golden Rule Model. “ Over the past six years a much imitated and successful way has evolved with eight main characteristics.

--(1) A private scholarship or voucher program is launched locally as a laboratory or testing ground to provide something concrete for discussion by the general public, the media, educators and/or state legislators.

--(2) “Golden Rule” programs aim to benefit children whose families lack the money for private education. Only those children are eligible who qualify for free or reduced lunch programs under Federal guidelines.

--(3) This form of choice program leaves selection of a school entirely to parents. The local foundation or charity itself trusts parents to make a smart choice for their offspring. The organization, however, is usually very well informed about local private schools and is happy to answer parents’ questions about what is available.

--(4) Each scholarship program targets a defined territory: city, county or in some cases an entire state.

--(5) How does a Golden Rule choice program select students? The trend is now to use a lottery (rather than the initial “first come, first served” method) to select beneficiaries if more children apply than the program can fund. Increasingly, programs aim to help entire families, not just isolated children. If Mr. and Mrs. Brown draw a winning number, then all their children of school age receive scholarships.

--(6) Grade levels are usually 1-8. But a growing number of programs also benefit children in secondary school.

--(7) Rarely does a Golden Rule scholarship cover the entire cost of private education. This is by design. For the donors and executives of almost all educational choice programs want parents to have a personal stake or sense of  ownership in the program.  Parents who scrimp for resources to benefit their children will probably also help children with homework and otherwise pay attention to schools, teachers and what is being taught.

Normally a grant is for at least 50% of the estimated cost of private education in the city or county in question. Sometimes it is 80%. In Albany it was 90%. No program,on the other hand, is totally inflexible. Depending on circumstances, one hundred percent of costs is occasionally provided.

--(8) Some programs also allow recipients to choose PUBLIC  schools other than those to which they are already assigned, many school districts often charging for such transfers. In fact, however,  few parents elect to go the public school route. Rather, the overwhelming majority send their children to private schools, more often than not to faith-based schools.

Eighty percent of the privately funded school choice programs in America are Golden Rule type Programs. Motivations of the donors and organizers do, however, vary for starting and sustaining such programs. The three dominant motives identified by recent polling are

--PURELY CHARITABLE:  simply to help children get a better education with no further motive;

--REFORM-ORIENTED: to challenge schools, especially public schools,  to improve through visible demonstrations that  privately funded scholarships do more and better for less money; and

--OVERTLY POLITICAL: to go beyond merely showing governments that scholarships empowering private school choice work and work well. Governments are then invited to support such a successfully demonstrated privately funded approach through government sponsorship: either via tax credits (as in Arizona) or by government funded scholarships.

The Golden Rule model is currently king of the mountain. Something like it is at work in Indianapolis, San Antonio, Washington, DC and other large cities. Funding is remarkably generous. Staffs of the disbursing charity tend to be small, their personnel young and energetic.

The poet Stephen Vincent Benet (1898-1943) imagined that God gives each nation its very own angel to guard the nation against its weaknesses and to bring out its strengths. He thought that the Angel of America is a very nice person indeed, but needs all the help she can get.  I like to think of  J. Patrick Rooney as a special assistant to the Angel of America. He loves children. He provides the means and the models to educate those most in need of help. He has made Golden Rule  the reigning champion of privately funded scholarship education. But Mr. Rooney, earlier this year, also launched a new and very different approach called by some “a school in a church.”  Please come back to this column later for that story.

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for Asheville TRIBUNE