Time to Expand Access to Schools
by the Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan, the Most Rev. Ricardo Ramirez and the Most Rev. Donald Pelotte, New Mexico Bishops
With the new school year underway, we want to take this opportunity to recognize everyone involved in the education of our state's children. Most definitely, we want to reflect on the shared vision that we all have for education in New Mexico — seeing every child succeed.
Regardless of whether the New Mexico school is public, public charter, public magnet, public alternative, independent sectarian, independent non-sectarian, or home-based, we all share the common goal of providing the best educational service possible to children.
As leaders of Catholic education, we know that Catholic, independent and public schools are crucial to our parish families. In fact, 90 percent of our families have children attending public schools, and therefore, we are advocates for these institutions and want to extend a blessing for their success. Also, we extend a blessing for those in our educational environments and in other independent schools.
In addition, we want to pray for those families seeking an alternative school for their children, who for whatever reasons are not succeeding in their current schools. It should be noted that there is a wide variety of schools available that may match their child's academic needs. New Mexico has 239 non-public, independent schools and 790 different public schools — a blessing for parents to choose from.
These school alternatives are expanding educational opportunities, and many will be highlighted during two upcoming events that bookend Independent Schools Week. Each event will celebrate the diversity, options, value, and quality available in our New Mexico schools:
• The New Mexico Association of Non-Public Schools kicks off its annual convention today, recognizing all independent schools that educate, assist and develop individual students.
• The Albuquerque Partnership's Community Education Fair and Education Forum will provide information, discuss education reform and answer questions on Nov. 12.
Those events and affiliated organizations will share New Mexico's independent school information, which has been serving the public well by educating children for decades.
Without these independent schools, the state of New Mexico would have to find and spend more than $320 million per year to educate 30,369 children who don't now attend public schools. The independents are a financial blessing for the public system and the Legislature.
Independent schools save taxpayers millions annually while modest-income families without disposable income are handicapped when trying to meet their children's unique needs. It is that equality issue, the uneven playing field, which needs a solution.
Groups like Educate New Mexico try to level the field between the haves and have-nots by raising charitable contributions to allow tutoring grants or student scholarships to low-income families to offer them new educational opportunities.
Currently, 6,100 students have qualified for Educate New Mexico scholarships but remain on the waiting list for lack of funds. Private charity alone will not be adequate to address this problem.
By empowering parents to select the school best for their children, Educate New Mexico has helped generate student successes. Some of those students attend Catholic schools. Many attend other Christian-based, Muslim, non-denominational and non-sectarian schools around the state. These schools strive for educational excellence— another blessing for modest-income families.
In order to give our children the best chance to succeed in life, we believe that New Mexico's educational focus should be to improve individual academic achievement levels and proficiencies.
Also, we believe that all New Mexico children need access to high quality public and independent schools, and our laws need to reflect equality of opportunity.
It is time to support and expand educational opportunity in New Mexico. It is time for legislative leaders to create a mechanism for charitable contributions to be made available to fund low-income families with tutoring grants and tuition scholarships. Individuals and corporations should be allowed a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for supporting non-profit organizations that fulfill the mission.
We need strong leadership across the state to assist those in greatest need, those with no disposable income, and to lift our students toward academic successes once those opportunities become realities.
On behalf of the Catholic Church in New Mexico and the people we represent, we welcome all to the table as we work with communities across our great state to improve education for all children by helping pass a Citizens' Educational Support Fund Tax Credit plan, so every child may succeed.
Michael J. Sheehan is archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe; Ricardo Ramirez is bishop of the Diocese of Las Cruces and Donald Pelotte is bishop of the Diocese of Gallup.
Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal
Educate New Mexico Awarded Matching Grants
Announcement from ENM’s Board Chairman, Mr. Bob Gallagher
Educate New Mexico is pleased to announce the recent receipt of two matching grants: a $704,000 grant from the Children’s Scholarship Fund in New York, NY and a $10,000 grant from The Stranahan Foundation based in Toledo, Ohio. Both gifts require that matching funds be secured locally.
Founded in 1998, the Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF) provides partial tuition assistance for low-income families to send their children to private schools. More than 62,000 children have benefited from scholarships across the United States as part of our mission to open the doors of educational opportunity to families. Currently, more than 24,000 children are using CSF scholarships. These children are attending private school due to the generosity of our donors, the efforts of 38 scholarship programs
like Educate New Mexico, and the sacrifices made by the families themselves, who pay, on average, 50% of their children's tuition.
CSF’s grant to Educate New Mexico is a “one for two” match, meaning Educate New Mexico receives $1 for every $2 raised up to $176,000/year.
The grant provided by
The Stranahan Foundation is a $10,000 one-for-one challenge grant. Matching funds must be secured by November 1, 2004.
Educate New Mexico’s mission is to help New Mexico families of modest income exercise their right to a quality education by promoting parental choice and providing financial assistance.
For four years, Educate New Mexico donors have provided 622 partial scholarships to children, allowing them to attend the school selected by their parent. Over six thousand more qualified students from family applicants are on the ENM lottery waiting list.
"We are grateful to the Children’s Scholarship Fund and the Stranahan Foundation for allowing us to keep school choice alive in New Mexico, helping make dreams a reality for the children of this great state!" —
Mr. Bob Gallagher, ENM Board Chairman
Good News, GREAT NEWS!!!!
My last two letters have expressed a good deal of uncertainty with regard to the future of Educate New Mexico. I am happy to be writing you today with better news. Thanks to recent events, Educate New Mexico’s future is now much brighter:
1) On Monday, June 7th, we received a financial commitment for the 2004-2005 school year from one of our major contributors,
Mr. Stanley Fulton, in the amount of
$200,000! Mr. Fulton is the owner of Sunland Park Race Track in Sunland Park, New Mexico. After receiving our last newsletter, Mr. Fulton decided to step back up to the plate — even though Mr. Fulton has hit a Grand Slam for us the past two years — to help insure the financial stability of ENM, a program he obviously believes very strongly in. Thank you Mr. Fulton!
2) On Tuesday, June 8th, we received word that our application for matching funds from the
Children’s Scholarship Fund had been approved! The grant is worth $176,000/year for four years for a total of $704,000. Unlike our previous grant with Children First America — which was dollar for dollar — this grant is a “one for two” match, meaning we get $1 from CSF for every $2 we raise.
In other words, the $200,000 gift on Monday became $300,000 on Tuesday!!!!
3) In addition, the response to our last letter has been tremendous. Thus far, we have raised almost $23,000 and we are still receiving your generous gifts.
So what does all this mean?
Obviously we will be able to continue providing school choice scholarships during the 2004–2005 school year. The only question is how many?
As our first matching grant expired, the board of directors was prepared to push forward next year with roughly 300 scholarships — a 25% reduction. (The total projected cost for 300 scholarships is $482,500.) The new matching grant, coupled with the generous donations we’ve received to date, put us well over half way to that goal two months before the start of the school year!
Based on previous years' contributions, it now becomes potentially feasible for us to continue providing roughly the same number of scholarships that we finished the year with — just over 400. (The total projected cost for 410 scholarships is $607,500.) The issue of the number of scholarships for the 2004–2005 school year will be discussed and decided upon by our board during our July board meeting.
We are thrilled to be in this position and would ask that you use the form on the
Donation Station Resource Center page to help make your giving intentions known to the board of directors. This will allow us to better plan for the upcoming school year and beyond.
Thank you so very much for helping keep school choice alive in New Mexico and helping make dreams a reality for the children of New Mexico!!! You will never fully know what your support of this program means!
Bob Gallagher
Chairman of the Board of Directors
