Saturday, March 13, 2004 in Orange County Register
By Sarah Tully
In her neighborhood, Anabell Alfaro could choose to send her son to a public school or private school when he starts kindergarten next year.
Two blocks away, Edison Elementary enrolls 1,235 students — the most-populous school in one of the state’s most-crowded districts.
Around the corner from the house where she lives with her parents, St. Anthony Claret instructs just 189 students and has room for 125 more. The Catholic school offers full-day kindergarten.
The single mother, a medical biller who is also going to school, worried about sending her son to public school. But she didn’t see how she could afford the $3,500 tuition for St. Anthony Claret, based at her church.
That all changed with the funding of a new, $1.1 million private-school scholarship program aimed at low-income residents.
“I’m excited that we have this opportunity,” Alfaro said. “To me, my son’s education is basically the most important thing.”
The Children’s Scholarship Fund is helping about 230 Anaheim children go to private school next year. Parents pay part of the tuition, depending on how much they earn.
The national organization was able to add the Anaheim program after receiving a $400,000 donation from Newport Beach investor David Steffy and his wife, Diane. With matching money from the national group and local donors, the Anaheim Challenge for Education raised the fund to $1.1 million.
This year, just 17 Orange County students are part of the national program, which started funding scholarships in 1999.
Steffy said he wanted to give more Orange County students the chance to choose a private school — a way he sees to improve the educational system and help the global marketplace. It’s a selfish move, he says, because eventually these children will take care of him.
Anaheim was pinpointed because of its high-profile nature with Disneyland and the Anaheim Angels. But in a city where thousands of children are poor, the private schools have extra space — at least 550 slots — while many public schools are so stuffed that they run on year-round schedules.
Mayor Curt Pringle agreed to be the honorary chairman.
“This was just an opportunity to demonstrate, with the mayor providing political support, that you could solve an educational imbalance in a community that people are familiar with and is kind of almost symbolic, in a way, with Orange County,” Steffy said.
The idea is often seen as an alternative to publicly funded vouchers, which would use tax money to supplement private-school tuition. Privately funded programs are often championed by voucher proponents — including Pringle — who want to offer students choices and step up competition with public schools.
While in the Legislature, Pringle sponsored failed bills to create voucher programs, including when he was Assembly speaker in 1996. He has donated $10,000 of his personal money to the fund and touted the program in his State of the City address.
In fact, his public mention of the private program rankled some attendees at the city speech.
“I thought it was the most angering thing I had heard. It angered me tremendously that the mayor would be pushing this foundation and say absolutely nothing about the public schools,” said Jerry Silverman, an Anaheim City School District board member
Pringle said his support of the scholarships is not a criticism of public schools.
“I can’t imagine that would be someone’s sentiment that raising money to help people have the education of their choice without any tax dollars at all is negative to some separate entity,” Pringle said.
Anaheim City, with 22,000 students, is taking a neutral stance.
“There are a lot of children in Anaheim. We’re overcrowded, so there are certainly enough children to go around. We’ve enjoyed a positive relationship with the private schools in town. And in the end, our goals are the same — for the children in Anaheim to succeed,” said Suzi Brown, district spokeswoman.
Superintendent Paul Mercier of the Magnolia School District said he worries that the fund will tout the scholarships’ successes later, without taking into consideration the public schools’ limitations. Although private schools can be selective in enrollments, public schools must take all students, including disabled children. Plus, he doubts that some parents, such as those who live in motels, will be able to pay even part of the tuition.
Researchers are divided over the scholarships’ effect, but parents often tell the group that it has helped their children improve their academics.
Some Anaheim parents said they want to send their children to private schools for religious and moral instruction, stricter discipline and a smaller environment.
Private schools don’t necessarily have smaller student- teacher ratios, though. Anaheim City has an average of 21.5 students per teacher while St. Anthony Claret now has most classes in the mid-20s but can grow to up to 36 kids. Still, some Anaheim City teachers must share classrooms for part of the day.
Parent Angela Mory, a single mother who works in collections, said she thinks the scholarship will help her 5-year-old daughter get ahead of her two older sons, who attend crowded schools on year- round schedules in Corona.
Her daughter, Aubrey, is already learning more in kindergarten at a private school, Lil Toots, in Anaheim. She can spell words like “frog” and “pig” and is learning addition and subtraction.
Next year, Aubrey is set to go to St. Anthony Claret, where she will also get religious instruction.
“She’s getting a lot of attention at the private school now. If she went to a public school, she would be overwhelmed and it would be overcrowded. She wouldn’t get the attention she’s used to,” said Mory, who plans to move to Anaheim.
(714) 704-3793 or mailto: stully@ocregister.com