According to Goldsmith, residential schools for children who are orphaned or are from destitute or single parent homes have existed in this country since 1629. Many children educated in those schools became well-adjusted adults with fulfilling personal and professional lives and a few of them are currently administrators and staff in the same schools where they were raised. However, the debate on residential schools has been tarnished by Dickensian images of abuse and neglect and in the past three decades, their number and influence has decreased. A new interest in residential schools has resurfaced in the past few years and some states, such as Minnesota, have passed, or are about to pass, legislation to create residential schools, most as charter schools.
Residential schools follow different models and receive different sources of funding.
Job Corps, with 116 centers nationwide, is the largest federally-funded residential school model. Some schools, such as Indiana's Sailor's Home are funded by the states. Others are privately funded, such as Eagle Rock in Colorado, funded by Honda Corporation, or the Milton Hershey School, funded by a private endowment. However, in the long-run, Goldsmith says, these schools prove to be a cost effective way to ensure high quality education and support to children who would otherwise run the risk of dropping out of school, remaining unemployed or getting involved with the court system. Joseph Devlin is Head of Girard College in Philadelphia, PA, one of the oldest residential schools in the country.