Since 1993, Concord Quarterly Meeting has been making tuition assistance payments on behalf of children who have at least one parent who is a member of a constituent monthly meeting other than Wilmington MM, which chose not to participate in the Quarter’s tuition assistance program. The child must be attending a Quaker school (designated as such by the Friends Council on Education) in any grade from kindergarten through twelfth. Among the schools recipients have attended are Delaware Valley Friends School, Friends Central School, Friends Select School, George School, Westtown School, Wilmington Friends School, and West Chester Friends School.
Currently, such assistance is derived exclusively from earnings distributed from the Quarter’s restricted endowment fund that has been funded by contributions of the Quarter’s constituent monthly meetings other than Wilmington MM. From 1993 until 2008, constituent monthly meetings were required to make annual contributions to that fund. Now contributions are voluntary. Four constituent monthly meetings continue to make annual contributions to it. As of September 30, 2021, the principal amount of such fund was approximately $350,000, but such amount varies depending on the amount of additional annual contributions deposited in it and the market value of the investments held in it.
Such tuition assistance is not need-based. Each year the Quarter announces the availability of such assistance on its website, through its list-serve, and in the announcements it distributes to members of the Quarter through the list-serves and other broadcast mediums the constituent monthly meetings make available to the Quarter. That announcement is distributed in December and January. The application is posted on the Quarter’s website. Historically, the deadline for filing such applications has been mid-February. Each application requires the signature of the clerk of the child’s monthly meeting to verify that the child is eligible. The Quarter makes payments directly to the relevant schools.
The amount of tuition assistance provided a student each year is determined by dividing the aggregate amount of the annual earnings of such endowment fund by the number of students who have applied for assistance. In September 2021, the Quarter distributed $10,797 in tuition assistance in the form of grants for the benefit of 17 students. Each grant was for $635.
The Tuition Fund process is facilitated by our coordinator along with the assistance of our treasurer. Please email our coordinator for more information at concordquarter@pym.org