Foundation Assessment

The clearest example of the role of foundations in distorting the public good is in education. Over the last two years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been singled out for its role in shaping public policy. Their efforts include supporting research designed to legitimize their reforms, training “leaders” for school districts, and outright propaganda campaigns to back their vision of education.

Their vision is one rooted in teacher accountability, dependence on standardized tests and a standardized curriculum. It includes a disdain for teachers and their unions and a preference for charter schools. Increasingly, it is fostering the use of technologies, computer based learning, home schooling and for-profit education.

David Morris notes in a recent article on foundations and their tax breaks:

“The Gates Foundation originally gave its money to school districts to encourage smaller schools that have a better track record at improving student performance. But, says Allan C. Golston, President of the Foundation’s U.S. program, “We’ve learned that school-level investments aren’t enough to drive systemic changes. The importance of advocacy has gotten clearer and clearer”.

In 2009 the Foundation gave almost $80 million for advocacy to influence the $600 billion various levels of government spend annually on education. In partnership with the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Walmart Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation has become the dominant player in writing the rules for the future of public education.

“Gates financed the New Teacher Project to issue an influential report detailing the flaws in existing evaluation systems. The National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers developed the standards and Achieve, Inc. a non-profit organization coordinated the writing of tests aligned with the standards, each with millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation. The Alliance for Excellent Education received half a million “to grow support for the common core standards initiative.” The Fordham Institute received a million to “review common core materials and develop supportive materials.”

The Gates Foundation has lately been partnering with the Broad Foundation, dedicated to preparing corporate and military leaders for school leadership roles. This foundation, too, has had extraordinary influence placing its graduates in key positions. Chicago, Rochester New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. have all been subjected to Broad leadership.

Education Clearing House recently published an article assessing the Broad leaders:

“What’s striking is the similarity of the reigns of terror and error of these Broad ‘graduates.’ Disturbingly so, in fact. Many…earned No Confidence votes from their district’s teachers, and from parents too. All meted out a top-down dictatorial approach. Most alienated parents. Many schools closed. A number had questionable audits on their watch. More than one had false or questionable data to support their reforms. All commanded large salaries with perks, while at the same time slashing services for kids and closing schools in the name of financial scarcity. A number of them avoided informing the elected school board of their plans or actively withheld information from them, effectively bypassing democracy.”

“Scandal, controversy, animosity followed them all, inevitably out the door.”

This description of the Broad Brand approach is familiar to Detroiters who experienced the rule of Broad graduate Robert Bobb as Emergency Financial Manager (EFM).

What is most striking about all of this is that not a single foundation that supported Robert Bobb has provided any assessment to the public of his leadership. Foundations helped pay his hefty salary, backed his authority and supported the expansion of the EFM law, but have given not a single public statement about the job he did as EFM.

Our local foundations, while supporting ever-higher accountability from students and teachers, are silent about judging their own man’s performance.

If local foundations are wondering why citizens are becoming increasingly suspicious of them, they should take a hard look at their own practices.