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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Seriously? Donors like Walmart are a very small percentage of a school's budget and don't go around [b]dictating school curriculums[/b], 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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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