Foundation pull-back

The giant investment banks and failing auto industry are getting bailed out by taxpayers. But it's coming at the expense of public education and health care. Urban school districts are already laying off thousands of teachers and cutting important after-school programs and social services. But now they face a double-whammy as the the biggest ed foundations begin to feel the pinch from the financial collapse.

Amy Crawford writing in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Tribune Review

It's a fundraising scenario played out more often than ever across the nation, as educators facing dwindling public funding look to these foundations to raise money for programs their districts would not otherwise be able to afford.

Fallout from the financial collapse

Look for power philanthropists like Bill Gates and Eli Broad to begin pulling back on public school reform funding and support for new small schools. Urban school districts, reform groups and charter school management companies (CMOs) that have become dependent on these giant funders, now risk severe cutbacks or even program collapse. Immediately threatened by budget cuts are dozens of successful new small schools in urban districts like Chicago and Oakland.

Sources tell us that the Gates Foundation has already notified Chicago’s school CEO Arne Duncan and some prospective school starters, that they are pulling the plug on new "investments"in Chicago start-up schools.

Closing small schools

Hundreds of angry parents and teachers are packing Oakland school board meetings demanding that their community-based small schools not be closed. Oakland’s schools are already among the hardest hit by the crisis. Oakland’s board, facing an $18 million shortfall (the district owes $86 million to the state because of an emergency bailout five years ago) and a likely Gates pull-back, is debating whether or not to start closing many of the district’s new small schools.

This despite a study released last week by Stanford’s Linda Darling-Hammond, showing the benefits of small schools for the district’s under-served kids:

”Are these newer schools succeeding?”... the answer is, 'Yes, they certainly are,'" professor Linda Darling-Hammond told the school board. Researchers found that students made more progress at the district's new small schools, on average, than those who attended old schools.Researchers also gave each Oakland public school a "productivity" rating that took into consideration socioeconomic factors such as parent education, poverty and prior test scores, according to the Oakland Tribune.