The 1% and Education Policy
Look, it’s no secret that an elite club of education dilettantes philanthropists have been throwing money at various educational causes for a good while, and that this spending has picked up markedly in the last few years. Diane Ravitch calls them the “Billionaires’ Boys Club” (h/t Sara Goldrick Rab); others such as Joanne Barkan refer to the “Big Three” (the Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and Eli Broad). For another good overview of the state of affairs, check out this New Yorker piece by Matthew McKnight and the aforementioned post by Sara Goldrick Rab on the Education Optimists blog.
So, OK. There are a lot of people out there that have no problem with the literally hundreds of millions, and possibly billions, of private dollars flowing into public education. Mayor Dean certainly doesn’t.