Thursday, March 3, 2005 in NY Newsday
by Carol Eisenberg
Businessman Tom Cusick is calling on people who say they want to save Brooklyn Catholic schools to put their money where their mouth is.
Cusick, the president of the Fifth Avenue Association, has gotten a $1.2 million challenge grant from the Children’s Scholarship Fund to create scholarships for children to attend parochial schools in Brooklyn and Queens in an effort to help two dozen schools that have plummeting enrollments.
“The sad reality is that there are thousands of kids who want to go to Catholic schools, but whose families can’t afford it,” he said. “We have to stop the hemorrhaging of Catholic students from the Catholic schools and bring more kids in.”
The announcement of the scholarship campaign comes after the Brooklyn diocese announced plans in early February to close 22 schools in Brooklyn and Queens because of falling enrollment and budget deficits — by far the largest number of closings in the city’s Catholic schools ever.
Cusick, a graduate of a now-closed Bushwick school, pledged then to do everything he could to keep the schools open. He describes himself as a New York businessman who owes his success in life to his then-free Catholic education.
“There’s a piece of my heart in Brooklyn,” he said, “and I want to send a piece of my heart to it — and I encourage others to do as well.”
While Cusick said he can’t promise the scholarship initiative will keep any of the earmarked schools open next year, he was optimistic that funneling more kids into the system would boost it. The problem, he says, is not lack of demand for Catholic education, but rather, families’ scarce resources to pay rising tuition.
This year alone, 4,000 children were waitlisted for scholarships to Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens through this scholarship fund, as well as through another nonprofit, Futures in Education.
The nonprofit Children’s Scholarship Fund, founded by two wealthy industrialists in 1998, confirmed yesterday that it will donate $1 for every $2 Cusick raises, to a total of $1.2 million over the next four years.
“It does strengthen the system when you add more children to the schoolroom,” said Darla Romfo, president of the fund, which provides partial tuition to thousands of families across the country. “But most importantly, it’s a good thing for the children. They get the opportunity to have this education, which is what their parents want for them.”
Those who want to make tax-deductible contributions to the matching-fund campaign or apply for scholarships can get information at www.scholarshipfund.org.