What is the purpose of the Austin CEO Foundation? The purpose of the Austin CEO Foundation is to equalize educational opportunities for Texas students by giving scholarships to families for school options normally denied them because of cost.  The Austin CEO Foundation believes all parents should have the option of choosing their child’s school and that all children deserve a great education. The online Education Options Resource Center provides parents with one central place to find information about public, private, charter, and home schools.   What are scholarship parents saying?    Click here to read parent testimonials.   How much are the scholarships?  Scholarships for children attending a private school are $1,000, public school tutoring or enrichment are $250, homeschool materials are $500.  A maximum of $1,000 seems low?    Austin CEO is a private foundation.  Our sole source of funding comes from generous individuals and businesses.  We have chosen a maximum of $1,000 in order to spread our resources to as many families as possible.  Our scholarship is tuition assistance, a helping hand. We want the families to have a stake in this endeavor.  We encourage parents to volunteer in the child's school. If the parents are also contributing to the cost of education, we believe they will be more involved in their child's education. Parents may seek additional financial assistance; many schools have their own scholarship program.   Is Austin CEO Foundation encouraging children to leave public schools for private schools? The Austin CEO Foundation is encouraging parents to find the best school for their child.  We do not recommend any particular school to a parent, whether it be public, private, charter or home school. We want to encourage parents to be “education consumers and shoppers”. We believe that schools, like children, are not "one-size-fits-all".  We are merely providing families with financial assistance so that they have wider array of choices in order to find the best school to meet the unique needs of each child.   What if parents want to choose a PUBLIC SCHOOL, which is willing to enroll the child for a transfer fee or tuition charge? Will the Foundation accept scholarship applications in these cases? Yes. If a public school is chosen by the parents and accepts the student, the Austin CEO Foundation will gladly process the application subject to the same terms and limitations as any other application. A school does not have to be a private school to participate in this program.   How do children qualify to apply for an Austin CEO Foundation grant? 1) Students must be residents of Texas and attend a kindergarten for 4 year olds through twelfth grade school. 2) Students must be between the ages of 4 and 18 as of September 1, 2009. 3) Families must be unable to fund their educational choice for their child or have difficulty in doing so without this financial assistance.   Private schools cannot serve special need's children, can they? Yes. Just as children are not all the same, neither are private schools.  Public schools must serve every child.  A private school has the freedom to focus its program on students with special needs.  While one private school focuses on special needs children, another private school may focus of gifted and talented kids.  Through this diversity of educational environments, parents are more likely to find the right place for each child.    What if a child already attends a non-public (private) school? We will provide scholarships to students currently enrolled in private schools.   Who gets in? Are grades important? This is not an academic scholarship.  It is a financial need-based scholarship. The only academic requirement is that the student continues to be in good standing with the school.  Each month, the school must report to Austin CEO Foundation that the student is in good standing based on the school's standards and requirements.   Can a school also contribute to helping a family pay for the child's education? Certainly. If a school wishes to offer a scholarship, we welcome the additional assistance. We do not, however, encourage schools to accept the Foundation's contribution as payment in full. We want the families to have a stake in this endeavor. If the parents are also contributing to the cost of education, we believe they will be more involved in their child's education.  We encourage parents to volunteer in their child's school.  It sends a message to their child that they find his or her school important.   Will this program create a mass exodus from public schools? No.  Clearly, our foundation does not have the funds to create a mass exodus.  Also, the private school infrastructure does not have the capacity to educate a mass exodus. Anywhere K-12 scholarships are operating a maximum of 5% of children have left their public school.  A school that is educating kids has happy parents.  If a school does not educate kids well, parents are going to seek other options.  Portable scholarship programs like these make all schools better, both public and private.  When schools “compete" for students, schools get better.   How do I get more information? Enrollment period is now closed, subscribe to our enews for next enrollment period and K-12 news alerts. www.ceoaustin.org/subscribe     The Texas Scholarship Lottery is sponsored by Austin CEO Foundation and Texans for Educational Options.