Excellent Boarding School Education for Kids in State Custody

Stephen Girard and Milton Hershey Led the Way: Who Among the Nation’s Billionaires Will Pick Up the Baton?

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My benefactor—the man who supported every inch of my life from the age of 9 until 16—was the 4th richest American in history, a ranking derived by calculating his net worth as a percentage of GNP.? Because of his extraordinary vision and unprecedented wealth, I had a primary and secondary school experience that would be difficult to match, including academic, vocational, business, religious, and arts education, as well as mandatory athletics and, even, some military training. ?

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I was not alone. I have 25,000+ brothers and sisters who, since 1848, were similarly raised on the same 43-acre campus. Our family’s combined issue would today equal in size the population of a major American city.?Because we all arrived at our Philadelphia home from economically struggling households, it can be said that our benefactor both forestalled economic desperation and made a productive life possible for millions.? Who was our benefactor?? Stephen Girard (1750-1831).

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What, specifically, did Girard do?? He left his entire estate to found and run in perpetuity Girard College, which has served children from economically distressed backgrounds for 176 years.? No American in history can claim a progeny the size and scope of Girard's, because no other ultra-high-net-worth Americans, other than Milton Hershey (1857-1945), have dedicated their potentially transformative estates to raising indigent children.

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Girard and Hershey, both childless, perceived that the greatest threat to these United States—whose principles and freedoms allowed them to build fortunes—is its permanently marginalized children, its youth bereft of opportunity, its young adults with little to no prospect of gaining an economic toehold and becoming productive citizens.?

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Girard—the new nation's largest shipping magnate, merchant, and banker—and Hershey—the iconic chocolatier and businessman—are America’s two greatest unsung philanthropists. While the robber barons used their new wealth to build monuments to themselves—museums, libraries, and the like—Girard and Hershey used theirs to provided refuge and a robust education for the nation's least fortunate.?

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There are currently 400,000+ children in state custody. Of these, 100,000 could be in schools like Girard College and the Milton Hershey School. One hundred thousand is not a random number. We know, anecdotally from Girard College’s 176 years in operation, that approximately one-in-four children could make good use of an excellent private boarding school education.

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In fact, by educating 25% of the kids in state custody in excellent private boarding schools, we will depressurize the unwieldy and failing foster care system. How? By dramatically reducing social worker caseloads, thereby enabling "the system" to be more selective in its enlistment of foster parents, as well as better able to provide them with comprehensive and ongoing training and other high-touch support.?

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Far too many kids aging out of foster care are headed for homelessness, drugs, crime, early pregnancy, welfare, and prison. Consider this factoid: not even 2% of former foster care youth complete college. Here’s another: a staggering 20% of all prison inmates have spent time in foster care—a data point which, for all practical purposes, makes the entire economic case for prioritizing this domestic issue above others. ????

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It will take $3 billion to get the job done. A single billionaire could do it. So could three splitting the tab.?Six billionaires could do it handily, and 12 could collaborate without feeling a pinch. And a mere $3 million would underwrite the creation of a blueprint and action plan.?

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MacKenzie Scott, for one, could pick up the baton. In 2023 alone, she contributed $2.1 billion to nonprofit organizations. Three million dollars to get the ball rolling is nothing. Scott and Jacqueline Mars would make a resonant dynamic duo, because the sources of their fortunes mirror those of Girard’s and Hershey’s.

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While there are many critical human service and public health issues in dire need of support from ultra-high-net-worth Americans, it’s difficult to imagine any with farther reaching implications than the precarious lives of the 400,000+ children in state custody, who are everywhere. Here's an idea: in 2023, over 30 American colleges closed; let's get the plan drafted and make good use of those campuses.?

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The question is screeching and urgent: who will follow Girard’s and Hershey’s far-seeing, life-saving, and citizenry-building philanthropy, and lead the way on behalf of our most vulnerable children today?

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