Friday, October 3, 2003 in Omaha World-Herald
By Judith Nygren
When she and her family lived in South Africa, Lucy Mafilika never dreamed of an education for her children.
It still seemed unlikely when she first moved to Omaha and her oldest child struggled in school. But then Mafilika hit it lucky in the Children’s Scholarship Fund lottery.
Now her children attend All Saints Catholic School just south of downtown Omaha with help from the scholarship program.
“Thanks, Mr. Walton, for giving my children their lives back,” Mafilika said Thursday as she sat in the school library, finally meeting the man who helped make it possible for her to choose a small, private school.
John Walton, director of Wal-Mart, was in Omaha to meet some of the students and parents who benefit from one of his most successful scholarship programs in the country.
The Children’s Scholarship Fund, started by Walton and fellow investor and philanthropist Theodore Forstmann, provides tuition assistance to low-income students who otherwise might not be able to choose a private education.
Since its inception in the late 1990s, the fund has grown into the largest private education initiative in the United States and has been named by Worth magazine as one of the top 100 charities in the country.
Nearly 45 local scholarship programs have grown out of the national fund, and Omaha’s is among the standouts, said Darla Romfo, president and chief operating officer of the national scholarship fund in New York City.
Among cities of comparable size, Omaha has the largest fund.
Nebraska donors contributed $ 1.7 million this school year, far more than the $ 200,000 donated in 1998. For the next school year, the local board is hoping to raise $ 1.8 million.
Omaha has committed to increasing its donations – and, in turn, the number of scholarship recipients – for each of the next 10 years. No other local program has made that kind of long-range commitment to increased scholarships, Romfo said.
This year 1,596 children across northeast Nebraska received tuition assistance to 80 participating schools. The average scholarship was $ 1,100; parents must pay at least $ 500 toward the tuition bill.
If the board reaches its goal for next year, 100 more students will become scholarship recipients, said Judy Tamisiea with the Omaha program. About 1,100 Nebraska children are on the program’s waiting list.
Nearly 60 of the 170 students at All Saints receive tuition assistance from the scholarship program. About 30 of those scholarship recipients are Sudanese immigrants.
Antony Gatduel Kuol told Walton that not all Sudanese families have chosen to remain in the school. But for him and many others, he said, the school is an ideal choice.
His children aren’t “just my kids” at All Saints, he said, but rather “our kids. … My kids love everything about this school.”
Walton noted that Omaha is unusual in that its public schools are better than those found in most urban areas. Still, he said, parents like Kuol and Mafilika should be able to choose the kind of educational setting they want for their children.
“Our country is based on equal opportunity. … It’s not fair that income should determine whether a child has an educational opportunity that works for him.”