Prologue

Let me start by thanking you for taking on the responsibility and challenge of leading The Schuck Initiatives, the foundation created by my late wife Joyce and me to promote freedom, liberty, and human flourishing for generations to come.

When we started our life’s journey together almost seven decades ago, our dreams were big and audacious, but we never imagined that we would reach a point that would afford us the means and motivation to establish this foundation. Because America gave us unique opportunities to succeed, fail, recover, and repeat it all over again, we committed ourselves to doing everything possible to ensure that future generations have access to those very same opportunities.

As you assume the stewardship of TSI, please continue to review the videos that we have created, as they describe, in the best manner currently available to us, the values we hold dear, the essence of our mission, and the impact we aspire to make, all of which are now in your hands. It is our hope that these videos will serve as a guiding light, illuminating the path we have set for TSI, and that we trust you and others will follow.

While my life has focused on a variety of endeavors as an entrepreneur, in both business and in public activism, improving the results generated by the public education “blob” has always been the primary focus of Joyce’s and my efforts. Why education reform? Because education is the foundation on which all else is built, and unless future generations are properly educated and prepared to do all that is necessary to protect the ideals of democracy, freedom, personal responsibility, and so much more, America will not be for others what it has been for us.

While most of the attention during the 63 years of Joyce’s and my partnership focused on me, let me be very clear that Joyce was every bit as much a pioneer and activist. She had her own style and manner, sometimes in partnership with me, often following her own course. While Joyce’s highest priority was the raising of our family, she always found time to support those in need, focusing on at-risk youth, the homeless, and the disadvantaged. She did so through her work with, and leadership of, various organizations. Let me urge you to take the time to learn about her life’s achievements, and even read the book she somehow, with all her other responsibilities, had the energy to write, titled “Political Wives, Veiled Lives”.

It is not by accident that our foundation is called The Schuck Initiatives, not The Schuck Foundation, as our vision and direction is that TSI be an activist, a catalyst, a crusader for whatever change is appropriate to accomplish our clearly stated, primary objective – to promote, encourage, and support individuals who are personally motivated to progress from dependency to independence. Public policy since the 1940’s, and especially in the 1960’s and 1970’s, encouraged, even rewarded, the substitution of dependency on government for the independence of individuals taking responsibility for themselves. TSI’s objective in all it does should be to advance personal independence, as it best provides the ultimate reward – pride in oneself! We expect that it will be pursued through collaborations, including joint advocacy of policies that make our goal increasingly realistic. TSI will never have the size and resources of most traditional foundations, so it is our hope that you will be entrepreneurial, leveraging our assets, be they financial, political, time, risk tolerance, relationships, and more to maximize impacts, similar to what we tried to do during our lifetime in both our public and business efforts.

In most instances it will be more effective and efficient to partner with practitioners rather than build our own programs. But in all cases, TSI should focus on supporting those addressing the underlying causes of social and human distress that exist in our communities, not just symptoms, doing so by empowering individuals with resources, information, and motivation to seek the inner rewards and the personal satisfaction that best come from being independent. Helping those who are helping others gain control over their lives should be TSI’s north star. Despite the size of our foundation being limited, TSI can still generate outsized results by being creative and taking thoughtful, strategic risk.

An example of our “out of the box” mindset occurred in the year 2000. When faced with inexcusably poor results coming from Colorado Springs public schools, we created Parents Challenge for the purpose of empowering low-income parents with the information and financial resources to choose the schools they thought would be best for their children. Parents Challenge was, and continues to be, funded entirely with private dollars, originally provided exclusively by Joyce and me but now supported by hundreds of generous donors who share our commitment. Giving parents the means to choose schools from a full menu of choices was unprecedented at the time Parents Challenge was created. Our Parents Challenge parents have always been treated with respect and dignity, empowered to choose private, public charter, traditional public, and/or home schooling (now called an ESA, Education Savings Account), despite the fact that all other privately funded programs in the country limited choice to only private schools. It was always our intention to honor whatever choice parents make, not to try and direct them to the type of school we, or others, thought might be best. We purposely and intentionally did not want to substitute our judgment for that of individual parents, even if we might have disagreed with them. Parents Challenge represents an example of how TSI’s principles of empowerment and independence should be the foundation upon which future actions are taken. Individuals should be invested in their own success, exercising personal responsibility while accepting accountability as they progress towards independence, self-reliance, and inner satisfaction.

While some might question why we have not identified specific areas in which we want TSI to get involved, that is also done intentionally. It is our desire to see the principles of independence, gained through personal responsibility, accountability, self-sufficiency, deferred gratification, and similar values be advanced. We are entrusting you with the challenge of selecting specific areas of need and opportunity in which you determine TSI can best help individuals realize their full potential. We expect that you will be flexible and creative as you maximize outcomes by taking thoughtful, strategic risk. Risk and reward are the opposite sides of the same coin, and we trust that you will apply the kind of judgement necessary to strike the proper balance. Please take advantage of the input of others, doing so when their expertise and experience will help advance our mission. That was Joyce’s and my approach to business and non-profit work, and we encourage you to do the same.

Great effort has been expended in the creation of our videos, done with the intention of providing specific, clear, and unambiguous direction to future leadership of TSI by defining our purpose, values, and long-term goals. “Mission drift” has defined too many foundations as they move from generation to generation, and we want to do everything possible to ensure that TSI does not suffer the same fate. Many very knowledgeable, caring, and experienced advisors have urged us to sunset TSI by spending down our corpus to avoid the same “drift” problems that have plagued so many other foundations. While their best of intentions are appreciated, it is my faith in your fidelity to our mission that we have chosen to take our own type of risk, hopefully proving that at least our foundation can protect original donor intent. So, while we have tried to do everything possible to make it clear how we hope you will deploy our resources in the future, it is you who will have responsibility to make that happen.

Foundational and fundamental to all the aforementioned is our most driving value – character. All that TSI does should help build and reward good character. There is no compromising of integrity that can be rationalized, or justified, a principle we have tried to follow during our business, personal, and civic lives. Integrity is not the most important thing – it is the only thing. As you carry out your responsibilities, please follow the Golden Rule, doing so not only because it is important in its own right, but also because doing so sets an example for others to follow. There is no right way to do the wrong thing and, as you will hear in the videos, we want you to do the right things for the right reasons. Ethical, moral, virtuous, and honorable dealings are paramount and should underlie all that TSI does.

We can never thank you enough for assuming this responsibility and trust that you will take great pride in what you will be accomplishing and in keeping the lamp of liberty shining brightly.