Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos and richest woman in the world, has released her list of very lucky grant recipients. No one knows who advises her. No one applies for grants. Decisions about her largesse are secret.
Among the lucky recipients are Girl Scouts, Junior Achievement, Urban League chapters, Big Brothers Big Sisters Clubs, and many more.
A dozen public school districts were on her list, including Detroit and Chicago. She gave the Chicago Public Schools $25 million, but the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago got $16 million, and LEARN Charter School Network in Chicago will receive $7 million. The two charter chains will get almost as much as the much larger school district. The Noble Network has 12,700 students. The LEARN charters enroll 4,000 students, pre-K through grade 8. The Chicago Public Schools enroll 320,000 students. So, 16,700 students get almost the same as 320,000 students.
Teach for America, which has hundreds of millions in its bank account, was gifted with $25 million.
Four KIPP charter schools received millions, although KIPP is amply funded.
Need does not seem to be a criterion in her giving.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Philanthropy has been dead for a long time. What Scott and other billionaires are doing is vulture capitalism–every “donation” is made to generate even more profits.
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I know some people are very enamoured with Scott (formerly known as Bezos), but these people are all the same.
Even if they weren’t that way to begin with, money warps their mind — and not in a good way. They actually believe they were chosen to decide what is good for the rest of us.
Scott is either just stupid or ignorant.
Neither is a particularly good reason for entrusting her with so much influence.
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These people live in the billionaire bubble where the norm is to believe that charter schools are “saving” young people from the “failing” public schools. They travel in the same circles, and their exposure to information is on a closed loop.
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So ignorance it is.
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Agree! I gave one charter school the benefit of the doubt but was HORRIFIED! I think the idea that learning is joyful is a concept buried in past.
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She helped build the twisted empire of Amazon and still owns four percent. She hangs out with Melinda French Gates. That’s who she is. It’s willful ignorance. It’s hubris. It’s delusional imperiousness. It’s a mixture of all the ignoble qualities that make up a tech billionaire.
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At least the (6?) Wives and Girlfriends of Elon the Musk are not funding charters.
Why do we have to even hear about these people?
Why don’t they just go away to Mars and leave the rest of us alone?
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SomeDAM: I think Scott doesn’t know the difference between public and private . . . at least it seems that way from what I’ve read about her. That makes her well-meaning, but ignorant. . . . and only “well-meaning” if she still loves, but does not fully understand: democracy.
Having all that money must be a terrible diversion. CBK
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I think this is more proof that no one should be that wealthy, no one!
Any Annual earnings over $250,000 should be taxed at 90%. Gross wealth, counting everything the person owns/holds (even stock and property), over $100 million should be taxed at 99% annually.
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Given her circumstance, I admire what she is doing. I would like to think she is just ignorant and maybe being influenced by some not-so-ignorant people. Any volunteers to help educate her about the charter industry and how crazy it is that she is giving $2000 per charter school student while giving $78 per public school student?
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Is Scott doing her homework here? What a shame – buying into the false hype that charters do better. Scott is not officially part of the problem.
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NOW, not NOT (officially part of the problem)
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Wow waiting for chalk beat News to do an article on all of the money that the charter network Kent New Jersey and Northstar and commerce schools received from the cares Act and the pandemic funding and now the funding they’re receiving from private donors or other private foundations calling out chalk beat News .
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It’s not surprising. It’s likely that Scott is in the echo chamber. Her second ex-husband was a teacher at Lakeside (Bill Gates’ school).
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In how many states does TFA receive state tax dollars? In Illinois, they get $1 million.
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For many years, TFA got $18 million from the federal government for being so great. It may be more now.
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https://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/academy-charter-school-mackenzie-scott-gift-hsmt5ftv
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Since most charter schools are not unionized, one long term goal is to replace union regular public schools with non union charter schools.
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Exactly right. The primary lure of charter schools for the rich is to get rid of unions. Some charters however have unionized
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The billionaire class is clueless. They have bought into the false narrative that they somehow have done all of the work themselves and government just gets in the way. Therefore, any move toward privatization is justified from their perspective. They believe that the public schools are a government enterprise that, like everything else government touches, is poorly run. Funny how they never question the 800 billion spent on defense where over 50% of the budget now goes to private contractors or the hundreds of billions returned to many of these kleptocrats in the form of tax breaks and subsidies. Billionaires only give with a caveat that such giving benefits them. The ongoing praise for the altruistic efforts of Bezo’s ex if profoundly misplaced.
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I commented about this very thing on an earlier post. My husband & I watched the doc, “Icahn,” & Carl Icahn, wiz kid (well, he’s 82 now) gazillionaire, made “The Giving Pledge,” along w/ Bill & Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett &, I guess, Mackenzie Scott. What needs to be understood is their misunderstanding of just what PUBLIC education means/is. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I both heard & read (we had the CC on) that Icahn has pledged (or already given) money to “public charter schools.” So…
they don’t get it, that there’s no such thing as public charter schools. (Well, Bill & Melinda do. I don’t know: Diane, maybe you could get in touch w/Mackenzie Scott (& maybe Icahn too–he’s mishpocha, kinda) & set them straight. Bill & Melinda are hopeless, & don’t know about Buffett much, but Omaha’s pretty Red, correct?
The Chicago papers reported Scott’s donations & even noted that the money will go far in the charters (&, yeah, so few of them compared to # of CPS) & not so much the case for CPS…just a dent in their expense/income ratio.
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I wish I knew how to reach MacKenzie Scott. I don’t.
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