That's a rough estimate of how much it would cost to provide a need-based scholarship to every senior heading from Cincinnati, Covington or Newport public or parochial high schools to college. And that's exactly what the group on the bridge wants to do.

A full helping of the region's business, political and educational leaders gathered there last week and proclaimed it a new day for local education. In a program called Strive, they would provide early-childhood care and mentors. They would bolster Community Learning Centers throughout the region. They would help every child prepare for high school, go to college and launch into a career.

And most audaciously, they would help pay for that education at a local university for anyone who needs that help. At rough numbers of $10.4 million - an average unmet need of $4,000 for about 2,600 high-school graduates a year - it's a big price tag for an equally big goal.

Providing those scholarships is the stated goal of Strive, the educational partnership that the group on the bridge launched last week. Strive is built on the assumption that education is the most important development tool we have.

There already is some new money for other parts of the program. The Greater Cincinnati Foundation has pledged $1 million and United Way of Greater Cincinnati another $200,000 to support the Community Learning Centers in Cincinnati.

But the Strive goal that makes the heart beat a little faster, the one that inspires you to dream of a better world, is the promise of college scholarships. Perhaps you felt that flutter in your heart Friday when Miami University announced that it would provide free tuition to Ohio students with a family income of less than $35,000. Miami says it will cover more than 100 new students every year.

Note that a bequest of more than $10 million will fund the Miami program. To meet its inspirational goals, Strive clearly would require millions of dollars a year. It could be less than $10 million a year, since not every graduate will want to go to college here and students will tap the "last dollar" program only after they've tapped other available funds."

University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher says there is money available, including federal grants or scholarship funds loosened within universities. In this case, information about the money is just as valuable as the money, she says.

"We have to create a system where everybody knows where the money is," she says.

Organizer Chad Wick, president of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, thinks Strive will have an easier time raising money once the organization is in place and once Strive can say for sure what's already out there.

"We think there are many people who would support the scholarship initiative if they think there's someone who makes sure it does something," Wick says. "There's interest, if we can align the parts and create accountability."

You money types who read this page love to talk about accountability. Procter & Gamble Co. will lend vice president Jim Bechtold to the program to help establish just that. That's a strength the corporate world can lend to any nonprofit venture, the ultimate accountability of the financial bottom line: This is what we need to do. This is what we can afford to do. Do the two numbers match? What gets measured, the old adage goes, gets done.

From a distance, accountability has not been one of the strengths of the educational establishment. Amid a blizzard of underperforming urban schools, budget-strained suburban schools and pockets of excellence in both places, the same people appear to be in charge. If you own a house, the property-tax bill keeps going up.

So with Strive, accountability will be critical. KnowledgeWorks will absorb about half-a-million dollars in annual costs to measure and research the program, and leaders around the region pledged not to abandon their promises.

Who exactly is accountable for that?

WORTH THE EFFORT

Don't get me wrong. Strive is chock full of wonderful goals. In fact, it's the loftiest goal the community can possibly embrace, an investment in our children, and more particularly in our children who often operate without a real chance in life. It is very much worth the effort.

The 2000 Census told us that among the seven counties in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky, only Hamilton and Warren counties exceed the national average of 24.4 percent of its citizens earning a bachelor's degree. Last year the region added college graduates at a slower pace in 2005 than the nation as a whole.

Meanwhile, study after study suggests that quality schools lure new families, new companies, new talent and new investment, all commodities sometimes in short supply here. "We understand," Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Rosa Blackwell said on the bridge, "that the future of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is linked to our schools."

But the truth is this: Great schools cost lots of money.

And the expectations those in charge of Strive are trying to create will cost a lot of money. Maybe it will come from wealthy donors, the kind that anonymously funded a free-scholarship program in Kalamazoo, Mich., that is a model for Strive. Maybe it will come from a big-bucks foundation like that run by Microsoft's Bill Gates. If the appeal here works, maybe the money can come from people all around the region.

All of this places a heavy burden of responsibility on those in charge of Strive. Money alone won't fulfill that responsibility.

But it would help.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com. For more from Cliff Peale, check out his Business Blog at http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/business/