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Several groups have set up college-scholarship funds for the children of those killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Among the efforts announced so far:
- The Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based philanthropy that seeks to expand access to postsecondary education, has pledged $3 million to create the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund that will help the children and spouses of those killed or permanently disabled as a result of the terrorist attacks.
The fund will support undergraduate education at any accredited college, university, or vocational school in the United States. It will be managed by the Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation of America, the nation’s largest nonprofit manager of private scholarship programs. Money could be available as early as January.
- The Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation will provide a $10,000 scholarship bond for children who had a parent killed in the attack on the Pentagon. The aid will be available for families of military personnel, civilian employees and contractors working at the Pentagon, and those who died on the plane that struck the building.
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Established in 1990, the Mountain Lakes, N.J.-based foundation over the past two years has provided nearly $2 million in scholarships to the families of U.S. Marine Corps members and federal law- enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty.
- A $5 million scholarship fund at New York University will help dependents of the firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical-service personnel who died during the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center. Martin Lipton, the chairman of NYU’s board of trustees and a founder and partner of the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz law firm, announced the fund’s creation. The Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz Scholarship Fund will provide full tuition and room and board at NYU, a private institution.
- The National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, a trade group for the electronic-systems industry based in Silver Spring, Md., has also established a scholarship fund for children of police officers and firefighters who were killed in New York. The fund will be an expansion of the organization’s long-running scholarship program for children of police and firefighters. The organization is asking its more than 3,000 members nationwide to contribute and to solicit donations from customers.
- In addition, the Survivors Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region has been established to support the long-term educational, health, and counseling needs of individuals and families in the Washington region affected by the Pentagon attack. The fund is based on a similar one created by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation in the wake of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
State Initiatives
The governors of New York and Connecticut, meanwhile, are proposing action at the state level as well.
Gov. George E. Pataki of New York plans to submit legislation that would cover college tuition for the families of those killed or seriously disabled at any State University of New York or City University of New York institution. The proposal would cover the equivalent amount of aid for students who attend private colleges in New York state.
“These families should not have to worry about how they are going to pay for college, and with this measure, they will never have to,” Mr. Pataki said in a Sept. 18 statement.
Gov. John G. Rowland of Connecticut also has proposed providing a free college education to Connecticut children who lost a parent or guardian in the attacks, but the details have yet to be worked out.
