Gift to City’s Catholic Schools

WNYC News | Jul 12, 2010

New York, NY —

A very wealthy New Yorker has donated $22.5 million to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

REPORTER: The gift from retired hedge fund manager Robert Wilson will fund scholarships for inner city children who want to attend Catholic schools. Spokesman for the archdiocese, Joe Zwilling, says the scholarships will be renewed for students’ entire elementary school education.

ZWILLING: So if a child comes in, in kindergarten for instance the scholarship would be for 9 years, assuming that the need still exists throughout those years.

REPORTER: Zwilling says he doesn't think the scholarships can save Catholic schools suffering from low enrollment from closing. But he hopes the money will help fill roughly 8,000 vacancies by 2010.

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