Education Law

Does the “Billionaire Boys Club” help?

Diane Ravitch coined this phrase in her latest book, and  The Washington Post today has a front page article on the Gates Foundation’s impact on education in the last few years.  BoardBuzz can’t ignore the fact that many of the nation’s ills when it comes to education really mean urban education, and the efforts of the Gates Foundation and the other “boys club” participants (Broad, Bloomberg, and Walton are also card-carrying members) are very focused on changing the way urban schools conduct business.

BoardBuzz applauds Gates Foundation for trying to do good among those who are under-served and need the help.  In today’s education/economic crisis, most of the funds that are getting spent are being spent in urban and large districts.  With the infusion of money, many of the critics say, “stop throwing money at the problem,” but we can see that the money does have an impact.  The models that the “boys club” come up with may be worth noting for other districts, urban, suburban, and rural, down the road.  But questions arise. 

When private funding was promised for the D.C. Public Schools to help pay teachers up to 20% more, questions started popping up about who teachers would be accountable to, the chancellor (since there is no school board in D.C.), or the funders?  If the billionaires don’t agree with the plans or progress in some of the large districts where they pump in millions of dollars, will the money disappear?  And more importantly, what happens to those students if it does?  

Everyone wants education reform, turnarounds, and accountability, but it’s also very easy to chase money in today’s economy.  Pragmatism has its place in the world of education, and BoardBuzz hopes those with deep pockets and decison making power see it that way as well.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on July 12, 2010 (boomark / email).