talk 530

No, I did not hit the Tristate Lotto, and I do not have $250 million. This comes from ‘Blue Print of Pui Ching by Peter Tong (Talk 519). In that article, it is suggested that Pui Ching must regain its old glory by taking the best students and teachers. This is done with a price. It will need 250 million USD. Alumni in US and Canada will commit US$20,000 for the first five years and then $250/year for an indefinite period. I am really shocked and wonder if this is worth it!

Pui Ching was a private school. It took government subsidies because it needed the money to compete with other schools. In order to get subsidies, it must take students sent by the government. Since Pui Ching was not as famous as the famous English middle schools, it did not get the best students. Consequently, Pui Ching is no longer considered as the top rate school in Hong Kong. Now, Pui Ching wants to reverse the trend by going private and asks support from the alumni. There are a lot of uncertainties there.

1. Will the alumni put up enough money for this purpose?
2. Is it worth the money and effort?
3. Is there a better way?

Even though the PC alumni base is big, not all alumni can contribute. Usually, one has to ‘struggle’ for 25 years after one graduated from high school. Therefore, we can expect the alumni will be at least 45 years old before he/she has ‘extra’ money to contribute. By the time one is 65, one live on ‘fixed’ income. Even if he is very rich and generous, he probably has contributd most of his money to charities. Therefore, we can count on only those between 45 and 65, a total of 20 years (actually 15 years are more realistic). Since Pui Ching produces 150 graduates every year, the total alumni in the contributing ages are about 3,000.
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Out of these 3000, 1000 is probably the maximum number one can expect to be rich and generous enough to contribute a significant amount of money. To make up the 250 million, everyone in that 1,000 is responsible for 0.25 million, or $250,000. Can you count on that? Even if most of the 3,000 pays, one still has to contribute $100.000 each! Perhaps, this is how Peter generates his number of $20,000 for FIVE years.

Of course, one can say there are some super generous alumni who will contribute a giant share. In that case, one has to expect several alumni in each class contribute several millions, because it averages out more than 12 million for each class.

Graduates of Pui Ching are different from Princeton, Harvard, or Stanford. Graduates from these schools can get good jobs. Since Pui Ching is only a high school, its graduates at the best get to a better university.

Let us be honest. Even in our glorious days, Pui Ching still could not match those famous English middle schools. The reason is obvious. Those graduates had a better chance to get in University of Hong Kong and then work for the government. They form a net work. Therefore, going to that English middle school is the bridge stone to work for the government. Pui Ching did not have that privilege. That is why the good students go to those famous English middle schools.

As James Koo points out, the economic environment in Hong Kong as well as the world has changed. Why the administrators in Pui Ching want to go private really bothers me. If they cannot get enough money to operate the school in the golden ages of 70s and 80s, how can they expect to get enough money now? Especially in both James Koo and Peter Tong’s article, they all agree that Pui Ching today is no longer a first rate school as in the 50s and 60s.

The reality of Pui Ching’s success is the way it selects its students. Out of the 12 classes in the first year of middle school, how many of them graduated? There are only four classes in our final years. In these four classes, half of students are from other schools. These are top students of their own schools. Being famous in science and mathematics, Pui Ching has the liberty to choose any students it wants. When Walter Tsui got in Pui Ching, he was one of the two students out of 90 applicants.

Pui Ching was famous for its mathematics and science, but according to James Koo’s article, there are only two of the 120 best students graduated in Hong Kong want to be an engineer. Since Pui Ching is now down to the second class school now, how long does it take to convince the people in Hong Kong to send their children to Pui Ching instead of other famous schools?

According to Peter, the purpose of ‘rebuilding’ Pui Ching is to encourage its students to go abroad instead of attending universities in Hong Kong. It seems to me that he thinks that good students should go abroad and stay there. May I ask ‘why?’ Wouldn’t it be better to spend the money to improve the universities, so that more students can be benefit from it? We all know it takes more than good grade to go abroad.

Furthermore, I sometimes wonder who contributes to China more, a Chinese (US citizen) working in the US or one works in China. Of course, the one in the states may contribute more money back to the school. On the other hand, even without Pui Ching, those good students attending other middle schools can still go abroad if they have the money and desire. Considering the idea of modernize China, is it important that the contributor must come from Pui Ching?

To me, 250 million is a lot of money. With proper management and investment, a 10% return will provide 25 million each year for scholarship. This will provide 250 students a lucrative scholarship. (If I am correct, the scholarship for Miss America is not any more than this!) If Pui Ching can offer this, I will send my children to Pui Ching!

Instead of fighting an uphill battle to rebuild the fame, why don’t we spend the energy and effort to build a high school in all major cities in the US and perhaps Canada?
The chance of success is very high. We all can see the success of most private high schools here. We do not ask our alumni for donation but offer them to buy stocks. They can expect financial returns in three to five years. At this moment in Oakland, the tuition for private high school is $10,000 to $15,000 per year, yet there are still students waiting in line!

The most expensive item in a high school is the football team. However, in a private school, we do NOT have to own a football team! Instead we can provide them with simple exercise that they can do for the rest of their lives. We have no intention to develop athletes.

We need money to build our names at the beginning because we accept only good students. (Pui Ching tradition). By raising the academic standards, we can easily make our students get good SAT scores. If we can make it in one city, we can make it in all the cities.

Let us build Pui Ching International!* It is much easier to ask the alumni to buy $20,000 stocks than to ask them to donate $20,000 for FIVE years. Remember, the stock offering is not limited to Pui Ching alumni but to any one having the money to buy! If it takes 6 millions to build a private high school, I can see it is very easy to raise the money. In the SF Bay, we have 600 people attending the Pui Ching Dinner. If 300 of them can buy $20,000 stock, we can raise six million dollars in no time!

The potential of Pui Ching International is unlimited. We probably can build one or two in all major cities. The future alumni base will be much bigger and richer. These graduates probably have more chances to go to famous universities than those in Hong Kong, because they are here and already have ‘proved’ that they can afford to pay $15,000 for tuition!

Lighters, if you think you should do something for Pui Ching, building Pui Ching International is a much better way than rebuild the fame of Pui Ching in Hong Kong.

*At this moment, some may think that I want to ‘steal’ the name of Pui Ching. In reality, my intention is to build the name of Pui Ching in foreign land. The name of Pui Ching is not that great in Hong Kong now. In the states, it is popular among the alumni only!

Twenty years ago, the Chinese Christian School starts with four students in its senior years in a four unit apartment. Now, it is a well known private high school in a city next to Oakland. At the beginning, it stresses the teaching of Chinese and Bible!.