Wall Street followers and those with long memories of the leveraged buyout boom of the 1980s will remember Theodore Forstmann as one of the biggest players of his time. Eschewing the notorious Drexel Burnham Lambert and junk bonds, the man who coined the term used by legendary writer Bryan Burrough and John Helyar for their famed book on the RJR Nabisco takeover, Barbarians at the Gate, managed to unlock shareholder value — and then building up firms — with buyouts of such outfits as aircraft maker Gulfstream, sports agency IMG, and what is now Dr. Pepper-Seven Up.
But for more than 123,000 poor and minority children, Forstmann, who died today after a long fight with brain cancer, was the man who helped them escape the worst American public education offers. More of us should follow his example.
Starting in 1993, Forstmann teamed up with WalMart heir John Walton to start the Washington Scholarship Fund, offering scholarships that young men and women in the nation’s capital could use to avoid the failure mills of what was at the time the nation’s worst school district. By 1998, the two men realized that more children outside of the Beltway deserved opportunities to get high-quality teaching and curricula. So they formed the Children’s Scholarship Fund, which is now the nation’s largest privately-funded school choice philanthropy. By the 2011-2012 school year, CSF helped 25,389 children attend high-quality private schools, pulling those kids off the path to poverty and prison. In Philadelphia, 96 percent of CSF students graduated on time, one-third higher than the graduation rate for kids attending the city’s traditional public schools.
The work of CSF in expanding school choice and showing the importance of giving families the power to send their kids to high-quality schools can’t be overstated. Along with the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal Race to the Top effort, and the work of school choice activists such as Howard Fuller and John Norquist in Milwaukee, CSF’s work has helped lead to the expansion of publicly-funded voucher efforts in 13 states. Forstmann’s work has also helped build the groundwork for the Parent Power efforts that are now taking place today; Forstmann, along with Walton, realized that American public education cannot be reformed until families are given their rightful places as lead decision-makers in schools and the learning of their kids. And by being an active player in school reform, Forstmann helped set the standard for today’s philanthropists looking to help all children succeed in school and in life.
Theodore Forstmann’s place as a leading player on Wall Street is well-deserved — and so is his legacy in directly (and indirectly) helping millions of our kids get the education they deserve. He deserves our thanks.