Effort starting to raise $100 million for public, charter, parochial schools
by Dale Mezzacappa on Jun 18 2010
A big, new player has emerged in the city's education world. It's called The Philadelphia School Project and it plans to raise $100 million in philanthropic money with the goal of supporting high-quality schools whether they be district-run, charter or parochial.
Some wealthy people are behind it -- especially Michael O'Neill, a real estate investor and developer, and Janine Yass, whose husband Jeff was one of theventure capitalists who bankrolled the pro-school choice gubernatorial campaign of Sen. Anthony Williams. They held an informational breakfast on June 17 at the Comcast Center, where it was announced that Nicholas Torres, now the president of Congreso de Latinos Unidos, would run the effort.
The initiative is still in its formative stages, and will take the summer to figure out strategy and raise money, with an official launch scheduled for September.
"We've been talking about education, but what's been missing from the conversation was how private dollars could be part of the solution," Torres said. "This is extremely exciting."
Torres and others present at the breakfast (no press were present), which attracted a cross-section of city movers and shakers, said the emphasis was on partnership, replicating best practices across the sectors, and closing the academic achievement gap that leaves so many African American and Latino students behind. Details, however, were still sketchy.