Who funds our schools?

[Anonymous]

A PTA is required to file a Form 990, which can be downloaded through Guidestar. Also, the PTA will have an annual budget approved by the membership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Donors like Walmart are a very small percentage of a school's budget and don't go around dictating school curriculums, hiring decisions, or behavior management approaches or anything else. As a former employee of a school that got Walmart funds we never once thought about whether the Walton Foundation would approve of any particular decision or what would Walton think. I would be wary of grants that come with all sorts of strings and requirements rather than unrestricted funds. Those grants force schools to do things that they might not otherwise choose because of they need the associated dollars. But this tends to be true of any non-profit that accepts funds from donors who restrict funds to certain causes, approaches, etc.

Also, DCPS does not fund charters. DC Council and the mayor pass a budget and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education administers the distribution of state funds and most federal funds. Some federal funds (such as meal reimbursements and some grants) flow through other state agencies.

Walton Foundation, Walmart Foundation and Gates Foundation all have very, very strong effects on the schools receiving their grants. The influence is not soft, but way out of line with the funding they deliver. The foundation doesn't 'dictate curriculum', they just make money available which buys one or two positions to do a certain thing, which is then embedded in the school environment. Lose the funding and all of a sudden you have one or two positions that need to go away or get a new funding source.
The foundation money doesn't get micromanaged, but it very definitely funds/buys curriculum changes via 'pilot intitiatives' or 'materials to implement the xxx program'.

Take a look at the recent NYTimes article on education foundation funding.

[Anonymous]

This is not always as easy a puzzle to untangle as just reading a 990. Creative Minds gets support from Charter Board partners, which gets funding from New Ventures for New Schools, which is heavily funded by Walton. New Ventures is also funded by the Broad Foundation, which is pretty fanatically anti-union.

New Ventures funds many of the HRCS in the city.

The fact is that none of these entities is ideologically pure.

[Anonymous]

For more on how this works, check out:

http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/p/broad-effect.html

The Broad Foundation's goal is a "transformation" of public education.* One of the primary methods used is the installation of certain elements into public school districts. If the one of these elements is planted, it is highly likely that another will be planted along with it in order to maximize the effect.

For instance, an element might be:

The presence of a Broad-trained superintendent, or even more (the salaries of which might even be covered by the Broad Foundation partially, or in full)
The presence of Broad Residents in important central office positions (the salaries of which might even be covered by the Broad Foundation partially, or in full)
An "invitation" to participate in a program spawned by the Foundation (such as CRSS's Reform Governance in Action program)
An offer from the Broad Foundation to provide the district with a FREE "audit" or "assessment" of some sort (eg. a "Performance Management and Diagnostic and Planning" experience), which issues a report with "recommendations." NOTE: This "diagnostic" is similar to the technique used by unscrupulous auto mechanics to drum up more business.

The Broad Foundation infiltrates its targets on multiple levels so it can manipulate a wider field and cause maximum disruption. Venture/vulture edu-philanthropists (or "malanthropists," as Michael Fiorillo calls them) proudly call this invasive and destabilizing strategy "investing in a distruptive force." To these billionaires and their henchmen, putting low-income communities in turmoil is no big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not always as easy a puzzle to untangle as just reading a 990. Creative Minds gets support from Charter Board partners, which gets funding from New Ventures for New Schools, which is heavily funded by Walton. New Ventures is also funded by the Broad Foundation, which is pretty fanatically anti-union.

New Ventures funds many of the HRCS in the city.

The fact is that none of these entities is ideologically pure.

I think you mean New Schools Venture Fund. Whose summit the DCPS chancellor is at right now:

https://twitter.com/HendersonKaya

The world is a complicated place. There is no such thing as ideological purity, and one person's purity is another person's pollution. Good luck if you think you can find it, and please let us know when you do. The rest of us will struggle along in the gray, doing our best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is starting at a charter school in the fall, and the website does not have info regarding supporters or donors. Would it sound aggressive if I emailed the principal and asked for this info? After the Walmart article I'd really like to know who is paying for my kid's education. It should be public, right?

Not sure why this post rubs me the wrong way. I guess because OP is going to waltz right into a functional charter school with no clue how much work it takes to get it up and running, scrapping together grant funds from foundations, and hard work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is starting at a charter school in the fall, and the website does not have info regarding supporters or donors. Would it sound aggressive if I emailed the principal and asked for this info? After the Walmart article I'd really like to know who is paying for my kid's education. It should be public, right?

Not sure why this post rubs me the wrong way. I guess because OP is going to waltz right into a functional charter school with no clue how much work it takes to get it up and running, scrapping together grant funds from foundations, and hard work.

Ok, OP here (finally got back online) and first, the school is not Creative Minds, don't know why someone said that. Second, I totally disagree with this poster and the others who say that private funders have no bearing on how schools are run. As a person who works for a foundation myself (and who knows quite well what it takes to put together grant funding) I see EVERY DAY how the money I grant to organizations changes them, and we are a very lax funder with very little political agenda--but the truth is there are power dynamics at play, and due to funding constraints, mission creep is a real thing. So to the PP who said that absolutely the Walton foundation and Gates Foundation can affect a school's environment, this is why I am asking this question. Not to "get mad" at the school, or "waltz in" like an idiot, but to better understand whether, for instance, a focus on high-stakes testing or data-driven analysis is based on what the school thinks is good practice, or more a response to donor demands to get funding. These are funders with very strong and clear agendas--their GOAL is to get schools to implement high stakes testing and support privatization--and if I were writing a grant for a charter school I would do my best to respond to their criteria by, for instance, talking about how data informs classroom decisions.

Ultimately what I am trying to understand is the "true" educational philosophy of my child's school, and whether I can have honest conversations with teachers and administrators about their choices. I probably visited 15 schools during open houses, and at least 10 of these talked about their data-driven approaches, multiple assessments for pk, etc. I work in education policy and I don't really believe in all those things, but I am also a pragmatist who is open to hearing why they might be good in some cases. So this is why I asked the question.

And for all you PPs who think I am obnoxious, pushy or overreacting, you are completely naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is starting at a charter school in the fall, and the website does not have info regarding supporters or donors. Would it sound aggressive if I emailed the principal and asked for this info? After the Walmart article I'd really like to know who is paying for my kid's education. It should be public, right?

Not sure why this post rubs me the wrong way. I guess because OP is going to waltz right into a functional charter school with no clue how much work it takes to get it up and running, scrapping together grant funds from foundations, and hard work.

Ok, OP here (finally got back online) and first, the school is not Creative Minds, don't know why someone said that. Second, I totally disagree with this poster and the others who say that private funders have no bearing on how schools are run. As a person who works for a foundation myself (and who knows quite well what it takes to put together grant funding) I see EVERY DAY how the money I grant to organizations changes them, and we are a very lax funder with very little political agenda--but the truth is there are power dynamics at play, and due to funding constraints, mission creep is a real thing. So to the PP who said that absolutely the Walton foundation and Gates Foundation can affect a school's environment, this is why I am asking this question. Not to "get mad" at the school, or "waltz in" like an idiot, but to better understand whether, for instance, a focus on high-stakes testing or data-driven analysis is based on what the school thinks is good practice, or more a response to donor demands to get funding. These are funders with very strong and clear agendas--their GOAL is to get schools to implement high stakes testing and support privatization--and if I were writing a grant for a charter school I would do my best to respond to their criteria by, for instance, talking about how data informs classroom decisions.

Ultimately what I am trying to understand is the "true" educational philosophy of my child's school, and whether I can have honest conversations with teachers and administrators about their choices. I probably visited 15 schools during open houses, and at least 10 of these talked about their data-driven approaches, multiple assessments for pk, etc. I work in education policy and I don't really believe in all those things, but I am also a pragmatist who is open to hearing why they might be good in some cases. So this is why I asked the question.

And for all you PPs who think I am obnoxious, pushy or overreacting, you are completely naive.

OP here. Also, I should add that there are some very interesting funders, like Flamboyan Foundation, who actually very purposefully promote an agenda, in this case family engagement. Schools working with Flamboyan (like Bridges, MV, etc.) are experimenting with new forms of family engagement. In this case, the grantee (the school) is entering into more of a partnership with the foundation, and in this case, on something I agree with! But I'm just trying to give another example of how donors absolutely influence education practice at the school level.

[Anonymous]

You are obnoxious. If this dictated your decision, then you should have already investigated. If you show up and start arguing against funding that existed prior to your arrival, you are a self-centered bitch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are obnoxious. If this dictated your decision, then you should have already investigated. If you show up and start arguing against funding that existed prior to your arrival, you are a self-centered bitch.

Agree. If you think the educational philosophy is dictated by one grant, you don't understand educational funding. And wow, you work at a non-profit...so has pretty much everyone in DC at one point, it doesn't mean you understand charter school start-ups (many of which was done by parents in their spare time).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are obnoxious. If this dictated your decision, then you should have already investigated. If you show up and start arguing against funding that existed prior to your arrival, you are a self-centered bitch.

Agree. If you think the educational philosophy is dictated by one grant, you don't understand educational funding. And wow, you work at a non-profit...so has pretty much everyone in DC at one point, it doesn't mean you understand charter school start-ups (many of which was done by parents in their spare time).

Wow, you two are completely brainwashed. Good for you OP for wanting to see the whole picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are obnoxious. If this dictated your decision, then you should have already investigated. If you show up and start arguing against funding that existed prior to your arrival, you are a self-centered bitch.

If what dictated what decision? I haven't investigated anything yet, beyond the link a PP sent out.

Also why all the hate? Who said I wanted to argue? I'm simply interested in understanding where the school's educational philosophy comes from. Who's the bitch here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are obnoxious. If this dictated your decision, then you should have already investigated. If you show up and start arguing against funding that existed prior to your arrival, you are a self-centered bitch.

Agree. If you think the educational philosophy is dictated by one grant, you don't understand educational funding. And wow, you work at a non-profit...so has pretty much everyone in DC at one point, it doesn't mean you understand charter school start-ups (many of which was done by parents in their spare time).

Wow, you two are completely brainwashed. Good for you OP for wanting to see the whole picture.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are obnoxious. If this dictated your decision, then you should have already investigated. If you show up and start arguing against funding that existed prior to your arrival, you are a self-centered bitch.

If what dictated what decision? I haven't investigated anything yet, beyond the link a PP sent out.

Also why all the hate? Who said I wanted to argue? I'm simply interested in understanding where the school's educational philosophy comes from. Who's the bitch here?

This is obviously an important issue for you. No one is saying it shouldn't be. But clearly you have already picked a school, have an agenda, and haven't yet investigated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are obnoxious. If this dictated your decision, then you should have already investigated. If you show up and start arguing against funding that existed prior to your arrival, you are a self-centered bitch.

If what dictated what decision? I haven't investigated anything yet, beyond the link a PP sent out.

Also why all the hate? Who said I wanted to argue? I'm simply interested in understanding where the school's educational philosophy comes from. Who's the bitch here?

This is obviously an important issue for you. No one is saying it shouldn't be. But clearly you have already picked a school, have an agenda, and haven't yet investigated.

For the record, I love the school but have some misgivings about their heavy focus on data. My agenda is to try to understand whether that focus is due to their deep belief in the power of data to better support their students, in which case I'm totally open to changing my opinion, or whether it is influenced by their donor base. I'm obviously not going to ask them that! But knowing who their donors are is a good starting point to better understanding the school.

Why are people so defensive about this?