Equalizing education

After a fight for survival, the Rhode Island Children's Crusade prepares to send its first class of students to college

by Ana Cabrera

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Kenneth Anderson of South Providence is a strapping, good looking kid, an 11th grader at Classical High School. "I'm not shy," he says with a wide grin, "and one of these days I am going to be the CEO of a major company." Talk with Kenneth and you get the notion that he means business, which is the subject he plans to study after he graduates from Classical in June 2001. But although the junior has the usual worries about where he will further his education, he has no doubts that college will indeed be part of his future.

That's because, like more than 18,000 other students, Kenneth is a crusader, a dynamic participant in the Rhode Island Children's Crusade for Higher Education. The non-profit agency was founded in 1989 with the lofty goal of providing low-income kids with the skills they need to make it into college. In a time when the cost of a college education has become increasingly unaffordable for families of modest means, the crusade is meant to be an equalizer.

After efforts by Americo Petrocelli, then commissioner of higher education, the first class of crusaders signed on in the 1990-91 school year. The premise was simple: any income-eligible third-grader in Rhode Island could take the crusader pledge, and the student would then be continuously monitored to ensure that he or she had the right tools to pursue higher education. These tools included access to scholarship money; free classes to prepare for the Scholastic Aptitude Test; and mentors with expertise in particular courses of study.

Kenneth Anderson, who enrolled as part of the first class, is a good example of the typical crusader. He says he knew, back in the third grade when he took the pledge, that he could go to college if he put his mind to it. "I always knew I had the brain power," Kenneth says, "but I wasn't sure if my family would have the money."

In his spare hours, Kenneth volunteers for the crusade, helping to tutor younger children. He's particularly grateful to the program for providing him free access to Kaplan SAT prep courses. "The Kaplan classes cost $700, something my family could not afford," Kenneth says, "but thanks to the crusade, I walked into the SATs more confident in my ability to do well on them."

Mentors in the program are available for the asking, although not every student has one and the crusade is constantly seeking volunteers. The late Sgt. Cornel Young Jr. was among those who have served as mentors for the crusade.

Like Kenneth, Peruvian-born Raul Lopez, 17, a soft-spoken student at Shea High School in Pawtucket, is quite sure of his goal -- to major in chemistry at Boston University. Going to college will brighten career prospects for Raul, whose father, Javier, drives a truck, and whose mother, Luz, works in a factory. To this day, Raul remembers the first time he heard about the crusade. "It was at a big meeting in the school auditorium, and they explained all the stuff to us. So I took the papers home, and my parents signed me up for the crusade. And now here I am. I'm going to go to Boston University," he says, referring to his aspiration. "I am going to go!"

But despite evidence that the crusade has helped students like Kenneth and Raul, the ultimate success stories have yet to occur. The first class of participants are in the 11th grade, a year shy of college. While crusade spokesman Jonathan Flynn says most of the youths who joined the program as third-graders are still on track, the percentage who actually go on to college won't be known until after they graduate from their various high schools.

But if the health of the crusade today is any indicator of the strength of the crusaders, the prognosis appears good. After weathering a fight for sufficient funding to survive, the program is well-regarded by legislative and educational observers.

"I've seen personally how the crusade can affect students, so I'm prepared to vote in favor of additional funding for it when the time comes," says state Representative Nancy L. Benoit, D-Woonsocket, chairwoman of the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare, and a teacher at St. Raphael's Academy, where several of her students are crusaders.

Peter McWalters, a crusade board member, and commissioner of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, describes the crusade as the premier effort in the state to aid disadvantaged students. It can be a powerful influence in a child's life, he says, when he or she sees an adult advocate and intervene to help them. Had the crusade not existed when he took his post in 1992, "I would have had to join forces with other agencies to form a program like it," McWalters says.

These kinds of accolades didn't come, though, without difficulty. The worst battles were fought about five years ago, just about when Mary Sylvia Harrison, the current president and executive director, joined the crusade. At the time, the program was operating on only half of the $3 million in annual state aid that had been promised at the outset.

Robert Oberg, the crusade's development director, says $3 million was a relatively small investment compared with the total amount Rhode Island spends on education. "The theory was that early and sustained intervention would have an effect on kids, and Rhode Island's willingness to test that theory showed that it is a visionary state which made a bold commitment," he says. The only problem is that the program's state funding was sliced to $1.5 million at the time of the 1990 banking crisis, when state cuts were made in a host of areas.

Harrison also faced skeptics who believed the crusade would not have enough scholarship money when the crusaders set out to college. There was the sheer number of participants. Harrison says the crusade accepted 2700 students during the 1990-91 school year. By the time she got there, the ranks had swelled to 12,000, and the numbers were growing. Some questioned the agency's ability to monitor all the students.

The amount of time that each child promised to invest in the crusade -- about eight years on average -- was quite a commitment for a little child to make. How could his or her interest and resolution be maintained when the goal was so intangible and far away? An even more difficult situation, considering that many of these youngsters were already at risk, dealing with economic, social and psychological pressures. All this led to what Harrison says was a "very, very scary beginning" for her tenure.

But Harrison, a 47-year-old South Providence native who had graduated from law school, established a shelter for runaway youths and served as director of an educational nonprofit, proved to be a formidable advocate. "I think it's a damned shame that we have to do battle to do right by our kids," she says in a characteristic remark. "So when I came here, I had a set of values that was non-negotiable."

Asked about Harrison, McWalters chuckles. "She's a warrior, she's relentless, fearless, honest and unquestioning," he says. "She has unconditional expectations in the kids she represents."

Still, Harrison's refusal to accept crumbs for her crusaders clashed with the economic reality of the early and mid-'90s. During that time, the General Assembly maintained funding for the crusade, but it was an uphill fight and Governor Lincoln Almond tried to completely cut off the $1.5 million in state aid at one point.

A turning point came in early 1998, when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company conducted an independent study of the crusade and made recommendations. The study, which was donated by Met Life, concluded the program could become more stable if it received a steady amount of state aid (roughly $1.5 million) and restricted the number of participants (approximately 500 new third-graders a year, rather than 3300). The non-profit would also told to raise at least $220,000 annually from private sources.

In a situation where it was basically sink or swim, the crusade opted to swim. The program was narrowed to include new third-graders from only seven communities with the greatest number of disadvantaged kids: Central Falls, East Providence, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, West Warwick and Woonsocket.

Harrison says limiting the number of new crusaders was heart-wrenching, but it helped to foster the crusade's solvency. As these changes were implemented, the struggle for the program's future became less fierce, and the tide began to turn. In the fall of 1998, headquarters were consolidated from two separate locations within the Foundry Complex to a newly renovated, large brick structure on Allens Avenue.

The crusade also received national recognition that year. Oberg says the US Department of Education used the crusade as a model while establish a program known as Gear Up, the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program. The crusade was among a dozen models to be honored during a White House ceremony.

Finally, last August, the crusade received $9 million in Gear Up funds, which will be used to help middle school-age crusaders get mentoring and tutoring. Competition for this money was intense: the federal government received more than 670 proposals. It awarded a total of $120 million to fund 185 grants, roughly one-quarter of the proposals submitted. The private sector also got behind the crusade, with contributions coming from Fleet Bank, the Textron Charitable Trust, Raytheon and others.

Harrison is optimistic the crusade will reach one early goal: to reduce the high school dropout rate of low-income students. Another ambitious goal is to get at least 63 percent of all poor kids from the Class of 2001 into college.

While this might seem like a formidable objective, the crusade has amassed a scholarship fund portfolio valued at more than $9 million. The program has also received assurances of scholarships from at least 69 colleges and universities in 16 states, including Yale, MIT, Columbia University, Bates College and the University of Rhode Island. The size of the scholarships vary, but any crusader who chooses to attend URI, Rhode Island College or the Community College of Rhode Island will receive a full scholarship.

At the same time, crusaders in the Class of 2001 are working to continue the crusade for other students. Kenneth Anderson and Raul Lopez are part of a group of 21 11th graders from seven schools who compose the Crusader Advisory Board. The board meets monthly at crusade headquarters, reporting to program officials about what's happening at their schools, and taking back information to share with other students. The students themselves run the meetings (receiving a small stipend), and their latest project is to hire adult advisers to assist participants in the education crusade.

"The kids are taking this whole thing very seriously," says Flynn. "They know what the program is about."

As a member of the first class of crusaders and a young man who is looking forward to college, the importance of this effort is clear to Kenneth Anderson. "You've got teen pregnancies, there are drugs, and a whole bunch of other problems out there," he says. "It's tough enough to stay focused. These kids need all the help they can get, and I want to help them get it, as I did."

Ana Cabrera can be reached at indianamc@yahoo.com.