From the Nov. 4th Daily Report Card:
-> *4   GIULIANI'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL PLAN:  STILL ON DRAWING BOARD
->    Early September, New York City Mayor Rudulph Giuliani (R)
-> proposed sending 1,000 of the lowest-achieving public school
-> students to Catholic schools.  (See DRC 9/11)  Two months later, the
-> plan remains on the drawing board, with several individuals groping
-> for a way to make it happen (Steinberg, N.Y. TIMES,
-> 11/3).
->    According to the paper, a small group of Wall Street
-> executives and philanthropists, including Peter Flanigan, a
-> director of the investment banking firm Dillion, Reed & Company, is
-> working to establish a charitable organization to raise
-> tuition funds for the city's worst students to attend private and
-> parochial schools.  "I think it is premature to say much because
-> there is not much to say," conveyed Flanigan.  "The honest-to-God
-> truth is that we are a long way from having come to some
-> agreement as to how to design and implement this program," he
-> said.
->    Flanigan and two other trustees of the Manhattan Institute,
-> a conservative public-policy group, are trying to secure
-> contributions from individuals, philanthropies and businesses to
-> cover the cost, which the TIMES indicates could run more than $2M a
-> year.  "We think we can raise the money," said Richard Gilder, a
-> stockbroker and the chairman of the Gilder Foundation, which
-> has "donated nearly $1M to the city's Catholic schools over the last
-> decade," reports the paper.  "But no one has guaranteed it."   The
-> TIMES reminds readers that Giuliani "accepted a long-
-> time offer form the Archdiocese to take 1,000 public-school
-> students who rank among the lowest 5% in academic achievement."
-> Initially, the mayor said the program would be paid for with
-> public funds.  However, he retracted his statement the following day,
-> and said the program would have to be paid for with private
-> donations.
->    Several questions continue to challenge the program's
-> advocates, including:  will it be open only to high school
-> students, and how will the students be identified since Schools
-> Chancellor Rudy Crew refuses to provide a list of the city's
-> lowest-performing students.
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