Researchers Sarah Reckhow of Michigan State University and doctoral student Jeffrey Snyder reported at an AERA session that foundation giving is increasingly concentrated on a small number of recipients.
Foundation funding is moving away from giving to public schools–attended by 90% of American students–and is going instead to “challengers” to the system, especially charter schools–attended by about 5% of American students.
The story in Education Week says:
“At the start of the decade, less than a quarter of K-12 giving from top foundations—about $90 million in all—was given to the same few groups. Five years later, 35 percent of foundation giving, or $230 million, went to groups getting support from other foundations, and by 2010, $540 million, representing 64 percent of major foundation giving for K-12, was similarly aligned.”
The groups now getting the lion’s share of foundation funding are KIPP, Teach for America, the NewSchools Venture Fund, the Charter School Growth Fund, and the D.C. Public Education Fund.
None of the main recipients of foundation funding are models for American education. All are committed to privatization. The best known alumni of TFA are Michelle Rhee, John White of Louisiana, and Kevin Huffman of Tennessee, all of whom support vouchers and charters.
When will the foundations wise up and stop supporting failed policies?
Don’t they care about the 90% of American children who attend public schools? Or do they think that someday all schools will be run by private entrepreneurs?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hate to be a cynic, but I think this is exactly the plan. The foundations, in general, are organizations populated by and created for the 1%. Their goal has never been to improve public education–it’s been to fund their pet projects in the past, and now it’s to support “innovation” that can be shuffled off to private and charter settings if successful. The foundations are just the money laundering mechanism for Broad and Gates to funnel their donations to the privatization movement, under the guise of “supporting research.”
Bravo to my colleagues at MSU for shining a light at this hypocrisy.
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1st question: They may say they care about the 90% but “follow the money” as it works its way to those who wish to profit, to steal what is rightfully every citizens “common good”-the public schools.
2nd question: They hope that will be the case, as then they can reap (steal) all the “benefits” from privatization.
I’d gladly take just .01% of that $540M. It’d go a long way to helping this teacher’s financial situation. What kind of privatization scam could I come up with that could get me some of that grant money????
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Deal with their long term goal and that is total control and education is just another profit center when K-12 funding for the general funds is more than the DOD budget. You also get to control the shape of young minds for their personal use later as “Indentured Servants” in “Permadebt” to them forever trapped in low wages as they party on the profits generated for their personal use. Think like they do and it is all there.
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“Don’t they care about the 90% of American children who attend public schools? Or do they think that someday all schools will be run by private entrepreneurs?” An old management aphorism: don’t ask the question if you can’t live with the answer….
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Is this legal for foundations? Are they allowed to give their money to political organizations?
Given their tax status, foundations aren’t supposed to become involved in political efforts. However, they’ve obviously been violating both the spirit and the letter of that law, and doing as they please with impunity.
Who in the media will look into this? It’s a serious violation of tax law and a significant indicator that something is wrong, very wrong, with a system that allows a handful of billionaires to inject themselves right into the middle of political campaigns, from ballot measures like last year’s odious, pro-charter, pro-trigger Initiative-1240 in Washington—where they contributed to the pro-charter side’s 17 to 1 advantage!—to every pro-privatization effort they’ve generously funded over the years.
This is an egregious violation of the public trust. Why should these foundations be given this type of tax status if they’re going to use it for explicit and implicit political efforts?
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Charterizing schools is simply a return to segregation and inequality, the elite in America are jumping all over this. They bamboozle parents into believing their child will get a better education when this is not even their motivation.Who gets left out? Oh, only the black, brown, disabled kids. Hey, we can live with that. Sad that this is happening under the watch of the first black President. National implications and local dismantling of public education. Sad.
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[…] From Diane Ravitch: […]
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