February 11, 2009 2:47 PM
- Text
When Big Oil Does Good Things
(CBS)
Just like first graders anywhere, the kids in El Dorado, Ark., have started thinking about the big question.
"What do you want to be, Allison, when you grow up?" CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger asked.
"Half veterinarian, half artist," Allison said.
But unlike most first graders outside El Dorado, when it comes time to pick a college that teaches half-veterinarians-half-artists, Allison's tuition will be paid for by … the oil company just down the road.
Yes, that's right. Murphy Oil, a Fortune 200 company. Its CEO, Claiborne Deming, decided the kids needed help.
"So I thought, dad-gum it, we need to do something," Deming said.
And dad-gum-it if he didn't find $50 million to make a promise to the people of this small town.
So, every kid who goes through the El Dorado School system and graduates from the high school will be given $6,000 a year for up to five years to help pay for college.
"We want you to go to college anywhere you can," Deming said. "Here's $6,000. And if you go to an Arkansas public school, it's free."
Six grand will cover the entire annual tuition bill at Arkansas' public universities.
Murphy Oil will spend the $50 million over 20 years.
The promise to help pay tuition has paid off in more ways than one.
In the last year, people have moved here from 25 states, the town voted to tax itself to build a new high school, and, while home values might be in free fall where you are, they're not here.
In fact house prices in El Dorado shot up almost 33 percent in one month. Martin and Maxine Crawford moved here from Memphis with their six daughters.
"When they explained what the Promise was, it was a slam-dunk for us," Martin Crawford said. "Oh that was definitely the closer."
Oil companies aren't normally seen as the good guys.
In El Dorado, A little pain at the pump is the price of admission to a future that might otherwise be beyond reach.
"What do you want to be, Allison, when you grow up?" CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger asked.
"Half veterinarian, half artist," Allison said.
But unlike most first graders outside El Dorado, when it comes time to pick a college that teaches half-veterinarians-half-artists, Allison's tuition will be paid for by … the oil company just down the road.
Yes, that's right. Murphy Oil, a Fortune 200 company. Its CEO, Claiborne Deming, decided the kids needed help.
"So I thought, dad-gum it, we need to do something," Deming said.
And dad-gum-it if he didn't find $50 million to make a promise to the people of this small town.
So, every kid who goes through the El Dorado School system and graduates from the high school will be given $6,000 a year for up to five years to help pay for college.
"We want you to go to college anywhere you can," Deming said. "Here's $6,000. And if you go to an Arkansas public school, it's free."
Six grand will cover the entire annual tuition bill at Arkansas' public universities.
Murphy Oil will spend the $50 million over 20 years.
"We are quite a large company in a small community so we can have a very immediate and real impact that we can see and we can see it pretty quickly," Deming said.
The promise to help pay tuition has paid off in more ways than one.
In the last year, people have moved here from 25 states, the town voted to tax itself to build a new high school, and, while home values might be in free fall where you are, they're not here.
In fact house prices in El Dorado shot up almost 33 percent in one month. Martin and Maxine Crawford moved here from Memphis with their six daughters.
"When they explained what the Promise was, it was a slam-dunk for us," Martin Crawford said. "Oh that was definitely the closer."
Oil companies aren't normally seen as the good guys.
In El Dorado, A little pain at the pump is the price of admission to a future that might otherwise be beyond reach.
Latest Now in CBS Evening News
- Evening News Online, 02.08.12
- Female soldiers tell stories from the frontlines
- Behind winter's wild weather
- Gas prices continue to creep up
- GOP turns up heat on Obama contraceptive law
- Do Santorum wins signal fundamental change in GOP?
- Are Santorum wins good for GOP's future?
- Bloodletting underway in Syria, as rebels falter
- On the frontlines with Syrian rebels
- Combat rules don't keep women off battlefield
- Why winter is mild in the U.S., frigid in Europe
- Obama pledges $130M for Alzheimer's research
- Entire staff removed at L.A. elementary school
- Evening News Online, 02.07.12
- For rebel-held Syrian towns, constant funerals
- Fans celebrate 200 years of Charles Dickens
- Discrimination found within Air Marshal Service
Latest CBS News Headlines
on Facebook
on CBS News
on Facebook
- Adele opens up about vocal cord surgery
- Mo. teen gets life in prison for murder of 9-year-old girl
- "American Idol": Jim Carrey's daughter out, and then disaster
on CBS News






