The Children's Scholarship Fund has awarded 40,000 four-year, partial scholarships to help low-income families send their kindergarten through 8th grade children to private schools.

CSF Chairman Ted Forstmann says winners of the $160 million in scholarship funds came from all 50 states and nearly 22,000 communities nationwide. Scholarships averaged about $1,100 a year per student.

There were 1.25 million applications for the 40,000 grants, or about 30 applicants per award. CSF figures indicated families in large cities applied in high numbers: 44 percent of eligible Baltimore families; 33 percent of eligible District of Columbia families; and nearly 30 percent of eligible New York City families applied for the funds.

Eligible families had to have household incomes of less than $22,000 and must now pay an average $1,000 for supplemental tuition costs.

The high demand for scholarships indicates a general dissatisfaction with the nation's public education system, particularly in poorer districts, Forstmann says.

"The old debate is over. These families have ended it. In anybody's book this is a thunderous demonstration of dissatisfaction with the present system - and of the demand for alternatives," Forstmann says.

CSF was launched last year with a $200 million commitment from founders Forstmann - chairman of Gulfstream Aerospace - and John Walton, an heir to the Wal-Mart fortune.