Opportunity Knocks: Scholarships for Philadelphia Families

Welcome to Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano, a podcast devoted to shedding light on issues pertaining to making America smart again. These include, among many topics, school choice and parental rights. This podcast is dedicated to reversing the deeply disturbing trend known as the dumbing down of America. Now, here's your host, Educator.

and noted talk media commentator dom giordano hey everyone welcome in to this week's edition of old school new school next school with dom giordano and two great guests one of whom has been our guests before as we entered the second year of the program uh first is caroline allen she is the founding director of the ass prize and we're going to talk with carolyn too about this wonderful new program filling a need in philadelphia opportunity

And the Reverend Joshua Robertson, pastor, Rock Church in Harrisburg, founder of Black Pastors United for Education, and a finalist for the ASP Prize that we talked about in the beginning. So, Caroline, we'll get to the ASP Prize in a moment, but I wanted to emphasize one of the biggest things I've been told by people that are in the field, like you and I think the pastor, these wonderful scholarships are out there. Texas was cited to me, and the ASP Prize people, maybe you were involved in that, but you were involved in that.

and had to go on a big PR campaign. And you have bloviators like me who believe in school choice to get the word out there. It's there. And parents would be begging for this, I would think. What's the obstacle to informing them, particularly this Opportunity Knox Scholarship Program? Yeah, well, thanks for having us on. You know, I think in states like Pennsylvania, right, there's not a lot of choice in some ways, right?

You think about states that are very high on the Center for Education Reform's Parent Power Index like Florida, where there's a lot of choice and the public funding follows the child. And so when you think about a state like Pennsylvania, because it is not the norm, I think a lot of families are confused by it and think that there's a catch. And what the Opportunity Knox Scholarship is all about is really filling a void. We know that there are 17 Philadelphia public schools.

schools that are either closing or merging within the next two to three years.

And so what the Opportunity Knock Scholarship is trying to do is to be a response to that failure and uncertainty.

We know that no family should have to wake up not knowing whether their child's school is going to be open or closed.

And so we are giving 500 scholarships away, up to $8,000.

The students have to be entering either from first grade up to 12th grade.

And the scholarship goes until they graduate high school. That's what's really remarkable about it. So it's not just a four-year scholarship or a one-year scholarship where then families have to go back into that uncertainty of how am I going to afford this or where am I going to go next. But the scholarship lasts through high school graduation. So it's a really remarkable program and there are no catches. There are no curveballs. There is no tuition.

or any costs for families out of pocket.

You told me even since some of these are Catholic schools, or a lot of them are Catholic schools, it's $8,000 a year you get, but there's no catch. If you had uniforms, that would be paid for if you had to buy uniforms for your kid. So how do you react when you hear all this catch stuff that we get the word out there about it? It does seem too good to be true because this is like a lottery ticket.

It's like lemonade out of lemons that are happening to these kids.

And it really, you know, we think about two things. One, it's a parent's choice, right? And that's what we believe. I know that's what Pastor Josh believes. Like, it's a parent's choice. We want parents to know about it. And that's why we're so thankful to come on podcasts like yours so that parents can learn about the scholarship and then decide, is this right for my child, right? Or do I want a different option? So that's their choice. First and foremost, we believe in that. But at the YAS Prize, we are sector agnostic.

So we fund all different types of sectors from, you know, Pastor Josh's micro school to private schools, to charters, to homeschool hubs, to ed tech companies, to parent navigator programs. I mean, we fund a lot of different types of organizations and schools. And so, yes, a lot of the schools in Philadelphia that we are, that scholarship can apply to happen to be Catholic schools.

But these are nationally awarded schools. They've gone through a three-tier judging process, and they're nationally recognized as part of the YAS Prize community and network. And so they weren't just picked at random. They weren't just, you know, they're truly vetted schools. And so that's why we chose them as recipients for these students to go into.

Pastor, you and I have talked before, and I see how deep your commitment is to this and what it takes to break through obstacles like this is too good to be true. And one of the things I saw in various publications trying to break this down, they were making a point that you can join this coming school year, Opportunity Knocks. You don't have to wait until the 27th or the next school year happens. I see that as an advantage.

Somehow or another, they're making it that, well, parents won't be able to decide. I think it's the essence of school choice that parents are smart enough and they're given another option. It's not over choice. It's a good thing if you want to wait, I guess. But why not go next year? These things seem to be, they're going to happen despite the politics. These have been merged or it's coming for a long time. It's going to happen.

And this is the reason why, for me, I feel like the fresh voice of the clergy community is so important on this issue because, sadly, I think our lawmakers have made this so political that, you know, if you're listening to the news and you're listening to articles and reading articles and those things, there are people that will make you skeptical of this school choice option.

But how can we be skeptical of the school choice option when the reality is we are losing a generation? Like, let's put all the school closures and everything. Let's put all of that to the side. And let's look at the data. The data says that we are losing a generation and America's in trouble. Why would we fight this lifeline of a blessing that can help these kids? Why would we make this political whatsoever when we have kids that are drowning?

in schools. And the city of Philadelphia has some serious explaining to do. You got 17 schools that are being closed, right? Who's responsible? Who's accountable to that? Whatever that conversation is, is whatever it is. But guess what? There is a generous love warrior in the community of Philadelphia. And they have provided this scholarship opportunity. Why would we make it anything other than helping kids? And I think anything else is

is gross. Anything else is just ridiculous. And so for me, I look at a parent and say, when a child is born, you hold that child in your hand. You have so much promise and so many thoughts of what they can be. Opportunities are not lost. They're missed. Right? And so I'm hoping that parents would look at the reality that our schools are not doing well and that this

This is an opportunity to get a scholarship to a vetted school, a nationally accredited, vetted school. Man, these kids need this. They need it now. And we should be as a community surrounding this opportunity and making it available to all the children in Philadelphia. I wish I had it here in Harrisburg. Well, I wish we had you in Philadelphia. I told you that before, because you're putting your personal morality and credibility on the line, trying to assuage this idea.

There's nothing hidden here in this. It is straightforward, a lifeline of people that believe in it, like the three of us, and the generosity of the ass price and things associated with it. So, Caroline, I wanted to ask you, too, about one that really intrigues me, and I'm going to try to get them on. Is it LaGuardia Academy, which I believe is in Kensington? Yeah. LaGuardia Academy, correct. Tell me about that, because there was a piece, the guy that runs it is interesting.

and what that's about. And when you hear Kensington, well, now we're reaching into a really nationally known name as one of the hardest places to have peace and stability in a school that kids are going to profit from. Yeah, we have two high schools that are accepting students as part of this scholarship. You know, you would think, oh, I don't want to change during high school, but high school is so important. It's so important for kids. And so to go to one of these two high schools that are a part of our network is truly, you know, when one door closes, another.

And so we're hoping that families see that. Liguori Academy and also Father Judge, our other high school, have a really strong and important emphasis on career and technical education. I mean, they do a lot of things well. They give students an incredible foundation so that they can go to college or career wherever they seek after high school graduation. But what Liguori and Father Judge are doing particular is really connecting learning

to the workforce. We know that in high school, kids are more likely to be disengaged, not show up, have absenteeism because learning can be boring. And so these schools try to re-engage students to really make the connection between learning and the workforce super, super clear. Whether they want to go into the trades or not, they're getting real skills that can apply to real high, you know, high-paying industries.

We're talking about the opportunity, uh,

Knox.org.

That's the place where people should go.

Or if you know someone send them there, uh, Caroline,

give us a sense.

If you have any of the people that are applying,

what are they telling you?

What's the demographic?

What are we hearing about the reach out so far to this?

That's been what, what's been so incredible.

I mean, it's everyone from rising first graders, you know,

who can get a scholarship for the next 12 years of their life to,

who want to make sure that their senior year is incredible. And then they're from all different

neighborhoods in Philadelphia. I mean, those 17 schools that are closing are, you know, encompass a good portion.

They're not all centrally located. And then our schools where students can apply and get selected into are in similar neighborhoods.

And so we're seeing applications from families all over Philadelphia.

I'll tell the story about one family. I'm not going to say their name just for confidentiality, but they had already decided that their second grader was going to go to a new school, a private school. They had chosen a private school and then the question in their mind was, how am I going to afford this? But they knew that the first graders' experience was so poor at their Philadelphia public school that they knew they had to do something different. And then they were just leaving it up to their faith and to see how can we afford this?

the opportunity knocked scholarship and the mom says like it was such a is such a blessing the first initial part of the application takes five minutes that you can easily uh do the hardest part is just making sure that you have that report card that current report court to verify that you're you're attending one of the closing schools and 10 days later she is a scholarship recipient like 10 days and carolyn i gotta bet you know i know there's confidentiality i'll leave it up to you guys uh to ask but for this podcast

or even my radio show, I would bring that parent on. I mean, this is what we have to hear. Three of us with expertise in it, the pastor, the program he's doing, we're going to talk about in a second. But I hear a parent within 10 days, they were praying, pastor, or we're just going to rely on God, which is always a good thing. But it helps to have a path there that's easier than beating the bushes as God directs you.

No, and we try to make it so easy. It's five minutes for that initial application. I think, and Pastor Josh, correct me if I'm wrong, I think a lot of parents think that these processes are complicated and confusing, and they can be. I'm a parent. I'm a mom of three. I'm a former teacher. I looked at this process and tried to make it as easy as possible, knowing that families are working multiple jobs. They might have multiple kids. They don't have time to understand a process.

And we have a customer service hotline that's open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Can you give that to OpportunityKnox.org?

But the hotline, do you want to give that, Caroline?

Yeah, of course.

So you can do OpportunityKnoxPhilly.org or you can do OKPhilly.org.

And the customer service number is 877-420-1402.

They're available 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in English or Spanish, Monday through Friday.

You can also write to applications, plural, application, sorry, applicationsupport

at classwallet.com. And maybe you can link that in the podcast notes.

Yes. Yeah. We'll get that.

Yeah. OKphilly.org is the best email address. And we have a whole FAQ section so that to make this really easy. But right, Pastor Josh, isn't that true that so many parents think, oh, I don't have time for that. It's too hard of a process because it is new.

But please trust us that this is, there's no catches, there's no curveballs, this is the real deal, and it's fully credible. Pastor Josh, what do you have to say about that? I mean, I think you're, the parent is taking a risk to not do it, right? Look at what you have to lose. I think that, and I think most parents are, they love their kids, they really want something that can be a blessing to their children.

And so, you know, for me, I look at it like, you know, if it costs you an hour or two to change the trajectory of your child's future, it's well worth that investment. And when a person, like, I feel like this, like, where sometimes we can, you know, underestimate these parents. Like, if you think there's a catch to it, there's an application you can read, right? Like, you act like, you know, there's plenty of Google out there.

and you can get the information and see. But the reality is, I look at it and the biggest critique that I hear of opportunities like this is that they'll say something like this will take away from the public school system. That's what people will say. But think about how un-American that is. That another opportunity that is in a market of people that have to compete is somehow negative. McDonald's doesn't think like that.

think like that.

Our hospitals don't think like that.

God knows our churches don't think like that, right?

If you leave my church, your tithes leave with you.

You go to the next church because that's where you want to go.

So for me, when we're talking about giving kids an opportunity to learn,

if there's a system that creates more opportunity and that hinders another opportunity,

there's something wrong with the system.

And so I think parents need to really hear this message that this doesn't make sense that if there's another opportunity, that could be a bad thing for current opportunities. And so I'm excited about this opportunity because as an American, we should look at that like, man, freedom opportunities. That's the part what it means to be Americans.

Absolutely. Now, Pastor, too, your program, Caroline References Micro Program, we did talk about Episode 12, and we talked in great detail about it. How's that going? What is it? And where do people find what you're doing? And I think you have a consortium of ministers now that are doing this.

Yes, absolutely. Doing some powerful work in Pennsylvania. We started in the pandemic with one learning center.

And now we have five learning centers across the state of Pennsylvania. We have two in Harrisburg, two in York, and one in Philadelphia. We also support Life Males Theme Academy in Pittsburgh. And we also this year were a part of starting New Life Academy with Bishop Jason Davenport, which is a private Christian school for boys in Harrisburg. So yes, we've grown significantly.

And aside from that, we have pastors across this country now, a little under 2,500 pastors across the country that are within our network, particularly a part of the work that we're doing down in Texas. We worked with Dr. Richard Johnson and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and we were able to work alongside of them and get 25,000 children, 25,000 households.

registered for their Texas Education Freedom Account, which is their ESA down there. So we're doing our work not only in Pennsylvania, but across this country. We have a cohort of pastors now, 12 pastors that are going through an 18-month process of learning how to do this advocacy work, establish micro schools in their churches in different parts of the state, I mean, excuse me, different parts of the country.

And the cohort is represented by six different states. So yes, definitely a lot of growth since the last time that we talked. But I'm excited about the work that we're doing. And Caroline, I see this is kind of like a model home and a development. What we're doing with Opportunity Knoxville, it's going to be very public. You're going to have a lot of stuff because that's going to be in the news of 17 schools closing. Hopefully we're going to see the stories. I hope to get on, as I said, one of the parents you just talked about.

When you hear that journey and you hear these parents, particularly if the school is relatively close, that's why you have so many that are involved, where, if not seamless, it's a pretty good fit for the child, then that shows the broader 30,000-foot vision of school choice. It humanizes it right here in Philadelphia with real people. And the pastor just—I did one whole podcast on Forbes magazine, Pastor and Caroline,

saying that, well, you know, maybe these warps, these parents don't have the wherewithal to be making these choices, etc. It is so self-defeating, so wrong. We have people in, if not a desperate situation, a difficult situation, that are being given a lifeline here that all things being considered is relatively easy to access and move forward. And it's sad that there's suspicion of this.

But after one year of this, hopefully that will send a resounding message.

No, it's so true. And the applications, you know, are reviewed as they come in.

It is first come first serve for the first 500 students, you know, siblings, you know.

So if you have a couple of kids like all, you know, this as long as they currently attend one of the closing schools and the turnaround time is about two weeks.

So once you submit that first application to then connect with the school list, to then receive your scholarship, it's about two weeks. And to Pastor Josh's, you know, point, there's only risk in not doing it. So, you know, there are so many incredible families who have already benefited and they are, you know, they're in the clear. They know where their kid is going to be going come August or September of this year. We're not going to be waiting for these schools to close to give a

a new, exciting, stable opportunity for 500 students. Absolutely. Tell us where to go again, and Pastor, we'll get where to go for you. Where do we go, Caroline? So okphilly.org is the website and has all the information, a FAQ page, and then it's very easy to click Apply Now. That first application takes about five minutes to complete. We ask nothing related to income.

and the only reason we are asking for the student report card is not to see their grades. This is not a preferential cherry picking program at all. We have accepted all of the students that have applied. But the reason we asked for that report card is simply proof that they attend one of the current schools. So actually my team doesn't even see the report card. We just hear from our tech partner that the student is eligible based on that. So again, no catches. And Pastor Josh, where can you see the student

can more people find out about your schools and organization? Yes, yes. Through our website, bpue.org is where you can find us. And then any of the social media platforms, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, any of those, you can find us, Black Pasture, Generation of Education, BPUE. Caroline, I really would like to get that parent on. That is exactly the story that gets a message out. Thank you, too, for joining us.

and we'll put all the information up and continue to get it out there. Thanks, Caroline. Thanks, Pastor, very much. No problem. Thank you. Thank you. It was a joy to be on. All right. You just heard what's going on here in Philadelphia, but this says National Implications, this scholarship program, which I'm 100 percent behind, and we're going to see more and more people take advantage of it. I hope to bring you one of the parents who successfully, within 10 days, has her kid lined up, if they continue to choose, to go to a school that we

We will see you next week

on Old School, New School, Next School. Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano is a presentation of Giordano Productions LLC. Copyright 2026. All rights reserved.