Major donor to New Orleans public schools outlines 2010 spending
In the modern education reform movement -- a movement that has profoundly reshaped public education in New Orleans -- the Walton Family Foundation looms as one of the most significant financial backers.
John Dibert School was one of the local beneficiaries of money from the Walton Family Foundation.Depending on your point of view, the Walton foundation is either a critical supporter of improving student achievement or part of a small group of "corporate" interests hoping to privatize public education, a set that also includes billionaires like Eli Broad and Bill Gates. The foundation was founded by Wal-Mart owners Sam and Helen Walton.
On Tuesday, the group released figures that show just how much money it threw behind education initiatives last year and which groups in New Orleans got some of the cash. In 2010, Walton gave out $157 million for K-12 education, about $5 million of it in New Orleans.
About $52 million went toward shaping public policy, $64 million went to creating quality schools and $39 million went to improving existing schools. Another $2 million went to research grants.
Some of the biggest individual recipients have a major presence in the city: Teach for America, which has more than 200 instructors in local classrooms, received almost $17 million; and the KIPP Foundation, a charter school operator that will be running nine schools in New Orleans this fall, received about $9 million.
The Recovery School District received $667,000.
Among other local recipients: The Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, which counts most New Orleans charter schools as members, got about $375,000; the Urban League of Greater