Editing 79-04-A1 (section)

=== Transcript ===
I brought someone with me today who has a heartwarming story to tell about an educational program.
We'll be right back.

A few weeks ago, while Nancy and I were in New York City, a friend invited Nancy to visit a school up in Harlem. I was going to tell you about that visit, but figured you might like to hear it firsthand. So here she is, my wife Nancy.

Thank you, Ronnie. I'll be forever grateful for that invitation.

Over the years, I visited many schools and always enjoyed it, but I just wasn't prepared for the rooms full of bright happy children and proud teachers who obviously had great affection and love for those children. The boys were all wearing jackets and neckties, the girls were dressed in plaid jumpers and blouses and they all looked so neat and polite and alert. In every classroom I visited the students were told by the sisters that I would answer whatever questions they had. These were elementary grade students but the questions would have done credit to a high school. They asked intelligent questions which revealed a knowledge of national issues and what's going on in the world.

In one room, the sister asked them if they'd like to tell me about their basketball team. Out of the forest of hands that went up she picked a boy who jumped to his feet and proudly stated, "We won seven and lost two. We have two games to go and if we win those were champions." Unquote. I asked him if he thought they were going to do that and he said, "Of course" and he knows something, I believe him.

Then they asked me if I'd like to see their cheerleaders and I said yes. By that time, I was ready to start cheering myself. A group of girls came forward and did a routine that looked as professional as anything the famed Rockettes might do. I learned that they were responsible for everything including laying out the choreography.

I learned that there are 56 such schools, throughout the inner city, parochial schools once threatened with closing. His eminence Cardinal Cook of the Archdiocese of New York believed that these schools could be put to use to help the disadvantaged and the poor. His idea became the Inner City Scholarship Fund. It's supported by voluntary contributions and run by a board of trustees made up of New Yorkers of all faiths. This is also true the students. In the school I visited, almost all of the students were black and 80% were Protestants. A $350 tuition fee is charged, but no deserving student is kept out for lack of money. 92% of the parents are poor, but they've said they'll do anything to keep their children in these schools. Some volunteer to do custodial work, some of the mothers serve as teachers aides. One mother with an income of $6300 pays 1100 of that in tuition. She says she does without things, she doesn't buy many clothes because education is the most important thing.

By reading and other tests, these schools top the New York Public Schools in educational quality, and the total cost per student averages less than $500. By contrast, the per student cost in the public schools is over $2600.

That was Nancy Reagan.

Thanks for listening.

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