‘Business Week': Walton’s Schools Crusade

Although Wal-Mart fortune heir John Walton went to public schools in Bentonville, Ark., and his own son attends public school in Wyoming, he has decided to focus his philanthropy on voucher programs that help children attend private schools.

One reason, reports Business Week (February 7), is that Mr. Walton believes that the controversial nature of vouchers has had an unintended effect: Many school leaders are so worried that vouchers might be imposed that they are looking for other ways to bring about change.

“Most of the serious reform efforts, including charters, were not implemented until voucher legislation became a serious prospect,” he told the magazine.

Working in partnership with the leveraged-buyout investor Theodore J. Forstmann, Mr. Walton has donated $50-million to a fund that he hopes will give a push to the voucher movement by offering 40,000 scholarships to help poor children attend private elementary schools.

As important as Mr. Walton’s money, the magazine asserts, is his name and clout. “Having someone like John Walton in this movement makes it easier for other business people to enter the fray,” says Clint Bolick of the Institute for Justice, a Washington organization that is pushing school-voucher plans.

Mr. Walton says he is not discouraged by a recent federal court decision that ruled a Cleveland voucher program unconstitutional. “There have been so many successes in the effort to empower parents across the country that the decision has to be seen as a pretty minor obstacle,” Mr. Walton says.

The article is available online at http://www.businessweek.com.