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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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?[/quote]

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.

[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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