A new organization called the Global Fund for Emerging Scholars has formed a partnership with Bridge International Academies, a for-profit Group funded by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Pearson, the World Bank, etc. BIA has opened schools in several African nations and is highly controversial because it operates for-profit and takes on the role of the government. They get higher scores than public schools but they only want fee-paying students, and the cost is very much higher. The Global Fund will raise money to fund the for profit BIA.
One wonders why BIA operates for profit when it is backed by billionaires. Why don’t they just open free schools on poor countries?
One also wonders if it is legal for a non-profit to raise money for a for-profit?
The Global Fund for Emerging Scholars is seeking an official nonprofit status from the IRS.
But nowhere on its website does it say who is behind it. Who is on the Board? Who are the Founders? Is it BIA?
The Global Fund says they’ve filed for 501c3 status but if they get it, it might be in direction violation of the law.
The IRS could not be more clear about this: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/inurement-private-benefit-charitable-organizations
Diane Ravitch's blog 
HOW HORRID! This project is being set up as a source of MONEY FLOW for the FEW. One more time, the people whose land was taken is again USED by big money. This is SICK. Like these rich folks really understand the plight of our Native American people and what they need? Answer: NOPE!
I will restate: These people don’t know squat except how to USE others for their profits.
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The whole “non profit” category has been so badly abused that it has become little more than a cruel joke.
It has become the preferred way for shysters to make big bucks (by paying themselves high salaries) without paying any corporate taxes.
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Then the shysters erroneously call themselves philanthropists and pat themselves on the back, when, as Diane wrote, real philanthropists would just open free schools in poor countries. The Gilded Age millionaires were bad enough. At least they opened free libraries. The Silicon Age billionaires are a scourge.
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Todays billionaires are actually effectively eliminating free libraries.
Free Libraries make knowledge available to everyone regardless of their economic standing.
The billionaires hate the free library model more than anything else.
Free libraries go against everything they believe.
They want to control what people can and can not read, control who has access and make money off that access.
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cross posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Odd-Couple-A-New-Nonprofi-in-General_News-Billionaires_Diane-Ravitch_For-profit-Education_Money-Laundering-180208-800.html#comment688923
with these comments:
1- The people running this are high on the list of the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/eic-oct_11.pdf
Taking over education in the US has been very profitable for them, but profit is NOT the MOTIVE… the control of information, what a population knows, and the skills they are taught or do not learn, IS THE GOAL.
HERE IS A LOOK at what happens when billionaires get their hands on the schools: David Safier writes in the Tucson Weekly about well-funded efforts by the billionaire Koch Brothers to promote their anti-government, free-market libertarian views into local high schools. https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/guest-opinion/Content?oid=12119561
Meanwhile, groups funded by the infamous Koch brothers have launched an advertising campaign targeted at Hispanic voters called “the Libre Institute.”
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2017/11/16/roberts-koch-funded-group-launches-six-figure-campaign-sell-arizona-voucher-expansiexpanding-voucher/872630001/
see my series on what’s happening to eduction and the war on public schools
https://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html?f=legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
In 52 states dark money is changing what our children know about everything.New National Map Shows That Education Privatizers Have Burrowed into Almost All 50 States
The privatization movement is working!!!
Comment 2:
Diane Ravitch is one of the most vocal supporters of America’s public schools. Her experience as a federal education leader, academic, and education historian means she knows what she’s talking about. Whether you agree with her opinions or not, if Diane’s writing about it, you know it’s important @DianeRavitch
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Here is my understanding of the logic driving this sort of thing. The people behind this — Gates, Zuckerberg, etc, made huge profits through technology linked to the profit motive. One of their core beliefs is that innovation and development must be fueled by profits. So they look at spending — government or charitable — as wasteful unless it serves as a bridge to an “economically sustainable” solution. And economic sustainability is a synonym for profitability. This is the market logic behind this sort of “charity.”
See Gates’ speech to Harvard in 2007.
“We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities. We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.
If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world.”
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/06/remarks-of-bill-gates-harvard-commencement-2007/
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We can also consider these partnerships as gain for a few at the expense of many. Since none of these relationships ever is brought to a public vote, how would we know if it reflects the values of the voting public? Even if we have a capitalist economy, whoever said it should be applied to everything? IMHO, some services are better left to the government, and education is one of them.
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I think you have this right. The same logic is being used to sell financial products called Social Impact Bonds or Pay for Success contracts.
So-called “impact investing” is also a way for profit seekers to manage their reputations while raking in money from the poorest of the poor–as is true for the Bridge Academies.
It is also true that some non-profits, especially those still connected with the wealth of CEO founders, are making the case that democratic governance is not “agile” enough, and that non-profits, taken as a major sector of the political economy, should be empowered to bypass “archaic” forms of governance, with deliberative democracy regarded as archaic.
As I have often noted, the commercialization of a non-profit’s website is not too hard to manage. GreatSchools.org vacuums up public data about schools, massages that and makes it a rating system with 10 intervals–10 is highest. Those ratings and the underlying data can be leased by profit-seekers. Among the buyers is Zillow. The scheme allows the non-profit to perpetuate redlining by means of a proxy; that is, a rigged rating system for schools.
As a non-profit ALEC rakes in money from corporations and then provides ready-to use models of corporate-friendly legislation. ALEC explains why nearly the same state legislation appears across the country. I one case a lazy legislator failed to enter the name of the state where the boilerplate was introduced.
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Yes, Gates used the same “logic” to sell Common Core in his speech to legislators in 2009.
”
When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well—and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching. ”
Unfortunately, that it might be logical when applied to business does not mean it is logical when applied to education.
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Note that Bill Gates is much wealthier in 2018 than he was in 2007.
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It’s getting more Bat$hit crazy everyday.
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FYI: As per the Chicago Tribune, “Illinois to remake controversial PARCC exams as it looks to transform state tests”.
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This enterprise seems to be modeled on Save the Children and similar appeals where, for a fixed monthly or yearly contribution, you can sponsor a scholarship. One of the examples is in the range of $12 per child per year. That is about the amount of that Bridge International hoped to extract from parents for each child. The amount is clearly beyond the means of the poorest of the poor. Another way to think of this: This is a super fund, a version of the repository where national policies may allow for a tax credit for a “charitable contribution” sent to the Fund. The Fund acts as the intermediary, repurposing the money to qualified “providers”–all of these just happen to be for-profits.
And the Fund appears to be for private schools only. That is made clear by this whisper type line at the website.
“Bridge Partnership Schools for Liberia students are not eligible for sponsorship as they attend free public schools, funded by the Liberian government.”
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The point has always been to displace the Liberian public schools largely or entirely.
Bridge Partnership schools were the way of getting their foot in the door.
There is no other way the Bridge schools could ever be profitable.
The idea that they are going to run a profitable business based on their stated business model is just a joke.
No one believes it. Certainly not the billionaire investors who are behind the push to make Bridge Schools into Liberian government schools with the money but without the title.
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Bridge will never make a profit by squeezing a few dollars from African families. The governments spend very little, and even if BIA gets the government money plus tuition, there is no money to be made
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