The Maneuver The Catherine Hershey Schools Are Real. The Children They Serve Are Real. The $350 Million Is Real. The Question This Post Asks Is the One the Trust Has Never Fully Answered: Does Day-Care Preschool for 900 Children Satisfy a Deed That Mandates Residential School for As Many Children As $23 Billion Permits? THE CHOCOLATE MACHINE — Post 7 | February 2026

The Maneuver

The Catherine Hershey Schools Are Real. The Children They Serve Are Real. The $350 Million Is Real. The Question This Post Asks Is the One the Trust Has Never Fully Answered: Does Day-Care Preschool for 900 Children Satisfy a Deed That Mandates Residential School for As Many Children As $23 Billion Permits?

THE CHOCOLATE MACHINE — Post 7 | February 2026

THE CHOCOLATE MACHINE: One Man's Gift. One Deed. One Betrayed Mandate.
"The Managers must admit as many qualifying children as capacity and income permit."
— Milton S. Hershey, Deed of Trust, November 15, 1909

Post 1: The Gift — What Milton Hershey actually said. What the trust actually heard.
Post 2: The Surplus — 91 years of "embarrassingly large" accumulation
Post 3: The Board — Same people. Two boards. Multiple scandals.
Post 4: The Sale — $12.5 billion, 55 days, 10 trustees departed.
Post 5: The Billion Sitting Idle — $1.2 billion. $900 million reclassified. The math.
Post 6: The Children Who Didn't Get In — The criteria. The gap. The human cost.
Post 7: The Maneuver — Catherine Hershey Schools: what they are, what they aren't. ← YOU ARE HERE
Post 8: The 116-Year Question — What enforcement would require. And why it probably won't happen.

In 2021, ProPublica published its investigation: $17 billion. 2,100 students. 1.5% spending rate. $1 billion in unspent income. The coverage was national. The criticism was specific: a trust with the resources to serve thousands of poor children was serving hundreds and accumulating surplus. The board's response came in the form of a Dauphin County Orphans' Court filing: $350 million to create six early childhood education centers serving children from six weeks to age five. The initiative was named for Catherine Hershey — Milton's wife, his partner in building the school, who died in 1915 at age 42 from multiple sclerosis. It is real. The buildings are real — 50,000-square-foot centers with outdoor play areas, health screenings, transportation, meals, family success advocates. Three are already open. Three more are under construction. The children being served are genuinely poor, genuinely underserved, and genuinely benefiting from a program that would not exist without the trust. In a state where 72% of children eligible for subsidized childcare are not receiving it, the Catherine Hershey Schools address a real and urgent need. And yet: the deed Milton Hershey signed in 1909 says something specific. It mandates residential school — "residence and accommodation" — for qualifying poor children, as many as income permits. The deed does not mention preschool. It does not mention day-care. It does not mention children aged six weeks to five years. It says: admit them, house them, educate them, support them, for as long as they need it, as many as possible. The Catherine Hershey Schools serve a different population, in a different model, under a different program, on a different timeline. Whether they satisfy the deed is the question this post examines. The answer matters — because if they do, the trust has fulfilled its mandate and the argument is settled. And if they don't, $350 million from the children's trust has been directed away from the deed's specific mandate for the second time in 62 years.

What the Catherine Hershey Schools Actually Are

The Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning (CHS) are a network of early childhood education centers in central Pennsylvania, operated as subsidiaries of Milton Hershey School. They are not the Milton Hershey School. They are not governed by the 1909 deed. They are a new initiative, funded by the trust, serving a different population under a different model.

CATHERINE HERSHEY SCHOOLS — CONFIRMED FACTS FROM PRIMARY SOURCES

WHAT THEY ARE:
Non-residential, weekday, year-round early childhood education centers
Hours: 7 AM to 6 PM, Monday-Friday
Ages served: Six weeks to age 5
All costs covered: tuition, meals, transportation, supplies, diapers
Additional services: developmental, audiology, vision, dental screenings
Family success advocates: dedicated support for family stability

WHAT THEY ARE NOT:
Residential — children go home at 6 PM
Year-round boarding — no “residence and accommodation”
Governed by the 1909 deed — they are subsidiaries, not the school
Covered by the deed’s mandate — which specifies MHS enrollment

LOCATIONS AND TIMELINE:
CHS Hershey: Opened 2023 (on MHS campus)
CHS Harrisburg: Opened 2024
CHS Middletown: Opened 2025
CHS Lancaster City: Opening fall 2027
CHS New Danville (Pequea Twp): Opening summer 2026
CHS Elizabethtown: Opening 2027
Total: 6 centers

CHILDREN SERVED:
Each center: ~150 children
Total at full operation: ~900 children
Total investment: $350 million
Cost per child (annualized over program life): significant

ADMISSIONS PRIORITY:
Children from the community where the center is located
(not from deed’s geographic priority: Dauphin/Lancaster/Lebanon Counties)

WHAT PENNSYLVANIA SAYS ABOUT CHILDCARE NEED:
Start Strong PA (2025): 128,485 children (72%) eligible for subsidized
care in Pennsylvania are not being served. CHS serves ~900 of them.

What the Deed Says — And What CHS Provides

The comparison between what the 1909 deed requires and what the Catherine Hershey Schools provide is not subtle. It is the core question of this post.

THE DEED vs. THE CATHERINE HERSHEY SCHOOLS — DIRECT COMPARISON

DEED: “residence and accommodation”
CHS: Non-residential. Children go home at 6 PM.

DEED: “maintenance, support, and education”
CHS: Education and support. Maintenance is not the model.

DEED: Children “not receiving adequate care from one of their natural parents”
CHS: Children from “under-resourced and over-burdened backgrounds”
(broader definition, not tied to parental availability)

DEED: “as many qualifying children as capacity and income permit”
CHS: 900 children across 6 centers, phased over 4+ years

DEED: Ages 4-15 at enrollment
CHS: Six weeks to age 5

DEED: Pre-K through 12th grade, vocational training
CHS: Early childhood education only (pre-K equivalent)

DEED: Geographic priority — Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon Counties first
CHS: Priority to children near each center’s location
(CHS Harrisburg prioritizes Harrisburg children, not tri-county deed priority)

DEED: Income mandate applies to Milton Hershey School enrollment
CHS: Subsidiary, governed by separate board policies

AGREEMENT: Both serve poor children. Both cover all costs. Both are real.
DISAGREEMENT: Whether CHS satisfies the deed’s residential mandate.

The Trust's Argument: Early Childhood Is Upstream of the Need

The trust's case for the Catherine Hershey Schools is coherent and grounded in genuine educational research. It goes like this: the problem of childhood poverty is most effectively addressed at the earliest possible stage. Brain development in the first five years determines educational trajectory. A child who arrives at kindergarten prepared — with language development, social-emotional skills, and nutritional stability — has dramatically better long-term outcomes than one who doesn't. By intervening before kindergarten, CHS addresses the root cause of the need that the Milton Hershey School exists to serve.

MHS President Pete Gurt: "For more than 114 years, Milton and Catherine Hershey's generosity has enabled thousands of children to reach their fullest potential. As we expand our footprint in Pennsylvania, we remain focused on continuing the legacy of Milton and Catherine Hershey."

CHS Executive Director Senate Alexander: "Together, we can address the kindergarten-readiness gap between low-income and higher-income children, setting children up for long-term success in the classroom and beyond."

The early childhood research supporting this position is real. The Perry Preschool Project, the Abecedarian Project, and decades of subsequent research confirm that high-quality early childhood intervention produces lasting gains in education, health, employment, and criminal justice outcomes. This is not disputed science.

✓ THE FULL CASE FOR THE CATHERINE HERSHEY SCHOOLS

The need is genuinely acute. 128,485 Pennsylvania children (72% of those eligible) are not receiving subsidized childcare. CHS is addressing a real crisis in a state that cannot serve the children who need it. The $350 million creates infrastructure — 50,000-square-foot facilities, trained staff, family success programs — that will serve children for decades.

The early childhood model has strong research support. The evidence that early intervention improves lifetime outcomes is robust. By the time a child arrives at MHS at age 7 or 10, years of preventable developmental gaps have already formed. CHS is intervening at the moment of highest potential impact.

The family two-generational model is innovative. CHS doesn’t just serve children — it deploys family success advocates to help parents pursue education, employment stability, and financial security. A child whose parent achieves stable employment may never need a residential placement at MHS. CHS prevents the need that MHS serves. That is a legitimate mission response.

The Orphans’ Court approved it. The Dauphin County Orphans’ Court — the judicial body with authority over the trust — reviewed the CHS proposal and approved the $350 million allocation. This is not a unilateral board decision. It was judicially reviewed and sanctioned.

The buildings are stunning. The first CHS center in Hershey is a 50,827-square-foot facility with 18,000 square feet of outdoor play area. This is not minimal compliance. This is serious, expensive, thoughtfully designed infrastructure for poor children.

🔥 SMOKING GUN: THE 72% PROBLEM AND THE 900-CHILD ANSWER

THE DOCUMENTED NEED:
128,485 Pennsylvania children eligible for subsidized childcare
are not being served. (Start Strong PA, 2025 fact sheet, cited by CHS itself)
That is 72% of eligible children without access to care.

THE CHS RESPONSE:
900 children served when all 6 centers are operational

THE MATH:
128,485 unserved eligible children
CHS serves: 900
Percentage of documented need addressed: 0.7%

THE TRUST’S ASSETS:
$23-24 billion
Annual investment income: hundreds of millions
Pennsylvania law allows spending up to 7% of assets annually
7% = $1.6 billion/year available for mission
CHS cost: $350 million over multiple years (~$50-70M/year)

THE DEED’S MANDATE:
“as many qualifying children as income permits”
Income permits: thousands
MHS serves: 2,100
CHS adds: 900 preschoolers
Total: ~3,000
Unserved by either program: the remaining eligible children
that income would permit, if the trust chose to serve them

THE QUESTION THE TRUST HAS NOT ANSWERED:
If the mission is to serve as many poor children as possible,
and income permits far more than 3,000,
and 72% of eligible Pennsylvania children are unserved,
why is the answer 900 preschoolers and a $900 million reserve?
The trust has never publicly answered this question with numbers.

What "Continuing the Legacy" Actually Requires

MHS President Pete Gurt invokes "continuing the legacy of Milton and Catherine Hershey" when describing the Catherine Hershey Schools. The invocation is sincere. The legacy being continued is real. But the legacy Milton Hershey specifically created — in writing, in 1909, witnessed and recorded — has a specific mandate that the Catherine Hershey Schools do not satisfy.

The 1909 deed says: residential school. Ages 4-15. Poor children lacking adequate parental care. As many as income permits. The deed does not say: day-care preschool for children aged six weeks to five years, serving 900 children from the local community near each center.

CHS is consistent with the spirit of charitable concern that motivated Milton Hershey's gift. It is not compliant with the specific terms of the deed. The Orphans' Court approved it — and Orphans' Court approval provides significant legal cover. But legal approval and deed compliance are different standards. The court approved a use of funds that it judged sufficiently consistent with the trust's purposes. Whether that approval satisfies the deed's enrollment mandate — "as many qualifying children as income permits" — is a legal question that the court's approval does not resolve, because the court was approving a new initiative, not ruling on whether the old mandate has been satisfied.

The two questions are distinct: Is CHS a good use of trust funds? (The court says yes.) Does CHS satisfy the deed's mandate to admit as many qualifying children as income permits to the residential school? (No court has said yes to that, because no court has been asked.)

The Precedent Problem

The Catherine Hershey Schools follow a pattern this series has documented twice before. In 1963, the trust used cy-pres to divert $50 million in accumulated surplus to build a hospital — a legitimate public good, not mandated by the deed. In 2021, the trust allocated $350 million of accumulated surplus to preschool centers — another legitimate public good, not mandated by the deed.

Each diversion was court-approved. Each created something genuinely valuable. Each redirected surplus that the deed's enrollment mandate suggests should have gone to more children at the residential school. And each made it easier, in future years, to point to the diverted use as evidence of mission fulfillment — without expanding MHS enrollment proportionally to what the trust's income would permit.

The precedent is now three instances deep. The pattern is: surplus accumulates, public scrutiny increases, trust redirects some surplus to a new initiative, scrutiny eases, surplus resumes accumulating.

The children the deed names — poor children, lacking adequate parental care, ages 4-15, eligible for residential education at Milton Hershey School — are not the children in CHS. They may benefit from CHS before they age into MHS eligibility. Some of them will. But the deed's mandate is to the residential school. And the residential school's enrollment is still 2,100.

METHODOLOGY: HUMAN-AI COLLABORATION

PRIMARY SOURCES FOR THIS POST:
Catherine Hershey Schools website (chslearn.org): Confirmed all program details — ages (six weeks to five years), hours (7 AM - 6 PM weekdays), all-costs-covered model, six-center plan, subsidiary relationship to MHS, family success advocate model. PR Newswire (March 2024): CHS Middletown groundbreaking press release — confirmed $350 million total initiative, 150 children per center, 80 employees per center, Pete Gurt quote. Lancaster Online (2025): Confirmed three Lancaster County locations (Lancaster City, New Danville, Elizabethtown), opening timelines (2026-2027), ~400 total Lancaster County children served, 225 jobs. Milton Hershey School news releases: Confirmed CHS Hershey opened 2023, CHS Harrisburg 2024, locations, leadership. Investments in Caring PA / CHS Case Study (July 2025): Confirmed operating status as of June 2025 (Hershey and Harrisburg open), Start Strong PA 72% unserved statistic (128,485 children), longitudinal research partnership. Start Strong PA (2025 fact sheet): Confirmed 72% of eligible Pennsylvania children not receiving subsidized care. ProPublica (2021): Confirmed Dauphin County Orphans’ Court approval of $350 million CHS allocation as part of the unspent income resolution.

WHAT COMES NEXT:
Post 8 asks the question the entire series has been building toward: what would actual enforcement of the 1909 deed require? Who could demand it? And why — after 116 years, two AG investigations, two Orphans’ Court approvals, one attempted sale, and three diversions of accumulated surplus — the four words Milton Hershey wrote have never been enforced in the way they were written.