The Daniels Fund, known across the West for helping send needy and deserving kids to college, has agreed to pay much of the legal bill for Douglas County Schools as the district fights to keep its voucher program alive.

The fund’s initial gift of $330,000 will pay the district’s legal tab to date, district officials confirmed.

In addition, the fund has offered a matching grant of $200,000 for what is expected to be the ongoing cost of the legal battle. To collect that money, the district will have to raise an additional $200,000.

“We are extremely grateful to The Daniels Fund for their very generous contribution,” Douglas County superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Fagen said. “These dollars will allow us to support our students without using taxpayer dollars.”

In March, Douglas County schools approved a pilot project that would have paid $4,575 toward private school tuition for up to 500 of its students.

In July, the American Civil Liberties Union and others including one parents’ group, filed suit to stop the program, charging that it violates the Colorado Constitution.

Earlier this month, a Denver District judge issued a permanent injunction which halted the voucher program, leaving several private schools and hundreds of Douglas County families scrambling to figure out alternative plans for the current school year.

The Douglas County School District had sent out 265 first-quarter voucher payments that totaled about $300,000. But after the judge’s ruling, the district asked that the money be returned.

Monday, a Denver judge refused the school district’s request to overturn that injunction.

The Daniels fund is named for its founder, the late Bill Daniels, a Greeley native, World War II fighter pilot and accomplished boxer who made a fortune as a pioneer in cable TV.

While the fund is probably best known for awarding college scholarships annually, it makes grants in several fields, including efforts to treat and stabilize those suffering from substance abuse and homelessness.

But education, and specifically education reform, is a primary focus, said Linda Childears, the fund’s chief executive.

Daniels, who died in 2000, was impatient that education reform wasn’t happening fast enough, she said.

“He wanted us to fund programs that were really trying new and different ways to accomplish things in education,” Childears said. “He specifically mentioned vouchers as a concept that made sense to him based on his belief in the free market and that parents should have the right to determine the best education for their kids.”

Childears said Daniels was “all about school choice.”

Nevertheless, she said, this gift shouldn’t signal that the fund will bankroll any voucher plan that crops up.

“We looked at the Dougco situation and said, ‘they are strong leaders who have carefully thought through this process and have put together a good solid plan with the support of the teachers’ union, and then were sideswiped by lawsuit,” she said.

Teachers’ union spokesman George Merritt said the organization does not support the voucher program.

Douglas County officials have said they will appeal the injunction, but have not yet done so.

Karen Augé: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com