EXCLUSIVE: Two hedge fund billionaires donate $1M each to pro-charter school advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools
Officials at Families for Excellent Schools have declined to name the nonprofit’s funders since it was founded in 2012.
Two hedge fund billionaires dropped $1 million each on a controversial charter school advocacy group in April, the Daily News has learned.
Officials at pro-charter lobbying powerhouse Families for Excellent Schools have declined to name the nonprofit’s funders since it was founded in 2012.
But a July filing with the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics shows finance titans Dan Loeb and Julian Robertson both donated a cool million to the group.
Critics of privately run, publicly funded charter schools said the rich contributions from the two billionaires reflect an effort to privatize public education.
“It’s clear that this is not educational philanthropy, but the further pushing of an agenda to dismantle public education in the name of privatizing the education system,” said Zakiyah Ansari, advocacy director of the Alliance for Quality Education.
“Families for Excellent Schools has a nice name, but they are just a tool for billionaires and their political machinations,” said Ansari, whose group is partially funded by the city teachers union.
Most charter schools aren’t unionized, and in many cases the teachers unions have worked to slow the growth of charters.
There are now 207 charter schools in the Big Apple. Most were created under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who championed the growth of charters and EXCLUSIVE: Billionaires donate $2M to pro-charter group - NY Daily News:
