As the incomplete picture below (from a working draft of a paper) begins to show, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation alone has had a huge impact, giving money to schools and other policy groups that support Gates' strategies, while former Gates-associated personnel have found their way into the Obama Administration.
Now comes a new joint effort to improve education from a coalition of foundations, and it not the first of such partnerships we've seen either - but perhaps the biggest.
This from Google:
Foundations offer $506M for education innovation
HT 2 KSBA.A coalition of wealthy foundations is offering up to half a billion dollars to match federal grants meant to encourage education reform, taking the pressure off schools scrambling to find the matching dollars they need to get the money.
A dozen foundations plan to announce this week that they are investing $506 million, a portion of which is for a matching fund for the $650 million federal government grant program, called Investing in Innovation.
The foundations also set up an Internet portal for applying for matching funds from all the foundations in one step, streamlining the task of seeking money from multiple sources. School districts, schools and other nonprofits have until May 12 to apply for the money, which will be paid out by the end of September.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he was ecstatic about the foundations' interest in the innovation program and called the partnership unprecedented.
"This is how we should be working together. This is how sectors should collaborate," Duncan said. "If this goes well, think of the possibilities going forward."
The unusual group effort by a dozen education-focused foundations reflects their enthusiasm for the fact that the Obama administration is pushing states and school districts to embrace changes the foundations have long championed. Some of the foundation money will go to innovative proposals that do not get federal dollars.
"Every foundation dreams of having one of its programs scaled up by the federal government" and expanded across the nation, said Brad Smith, president of The Foundation Center, a national authority on philanthropy since 1956.
The foundation money and the federal program are both aimed at three aspects of education reform: innovation in the classroom, ideas for turning around low-performing schools and research to study ideas that can be expanded across the nation...The group of foundations includes the Annie E. Casey Foundation; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; Ford Foundation; John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Lumina Foundation; Robertson Foundation; The Wallace Foundation; Walton Family Foundation; William & Flora Hewlett Foundation; and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.On the Net:
Foundation Innovation Project Registry:
1 comment:
I Find this so interesting and very appreciative that wealthy foundations have a desire to use their money to help improve school facilities and education for students. the $506 million that they are willing to match the federal grant program and having a place for schools to apply to have their grants matched is a great way to get schools from all over the country involved in increasing education. The willingness for support shows that education is still something that needs work but it also shows how much improvement has been made to education over the years.
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