About 40 preschool students from low-income families in the Mon Valley will receive $1,000 scholarships to attend area schools, thanks to a donation from U.S. Steel.

The $40,000 in scholarships was announced at Ascension School in Homestead on Monday.

Representatives from U.S. Steel said they believe it is important to give back to Mon Valley communities, where their mills had once been the source of economic prosperity and that have suffered since the mills' closures.

Many private schools that offer scholarships or reduced tuition to inner-city and low-income students have been feeling the economic pinch lately.

Families who were once able to pay are now asking for more breaks.

"It's great for the corporate community to work with the Mon Valley," said Chris Masciantonio, U.S. Steel's director of government affairs. "We're confident that we're going to pull them through this as a corporation and as a family."

Ascension School, which has about 50 students, has experienced a recent slowdown in tuition dollars.

This and other financial factors are forcing the school to cut its fourth- and fifth-grade classes next year, meaning the school will educate students until only third grade.

The school operates on a meager $125,000 budget with the six faculty members, who are Franciscan nuns, receiving small remunerations for their work. The Rev. Bill Warner said the additional tuition dollars will be a huge help.

Students from Monroeville United Methodist Preschool, Good Shepherd Christian Preschool, St. Agnes School, St. Claire of Assisi School and the Tender Care Learning Centers in Whitehall and Clairton will receive scholarships.

The money was given through the Bridge Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that facilitates corporate giving for educational purposes by using Educational Improvement Tax Credits, which a corporation can get by giving to scholarships.

Last year, that group organized the disbursement of nearly $72,000 in scholarships to families in Allegheny County from corporations such as Unison Health Plan and Trumbull Corporation, said Natalie Nutt, Bridge's executive director.