Why Wal-Mart family foundation is spending $1 billion on charter schools
The Walton Family Foundation has already spent $385 million to help start charter schools in poor communities.
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — A foundation run by the heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton said Thursday it will spend $1 billion over the next five years to improve public education by backing new charter schools and helping programs already up and running.
The foundation has spent more than $1 billion on K-12 education over the past 20 years, including $385 million to help start charter schools in poor communities. The new money will be spent in places where the foundation already has ties — creating new schools and developing "pipelines of talent," said Marc Sternberg, a former high school principal who directs education philanthropy for the Walton Family Foundation.
"People in poverty need high-performing schools," Sternberg said. "Our goal is that all families ... have better schools. To be the rising tide to lift all boats."
The foundation said that, after analyzing its previous work, it's clear that students and their families should have more options, such as at charter schools, and that it should be easier for families to learn about them.
"This means creating enrollment platforms, equitable transportation access, fair funding and readily accessible, current information on schools and student performance for families and other(s)," a report by the foundation said.
Charter schools were first created in Minnesota in 1992, touted as a way to promote innovation in public schools. Many of the schools that are privately run but receive public funding specialize in science, math or the arts; hold classes in nontraditional settings; and heavily involve parents. The Walton Family Foundation is involved in schools in about two dozen states.
But not all charter schools are success stories. In Arkansas, for instance, four charter schools were listed in September among 46 schools with consistently poor results on standardized tests.
"We know that not every charter school fulfills its promise," the foundation report said. "On balance, however, it is clear that most charter schools have a positive impact on student learning."
Kim Anderson, the senior director of the Center for Advocacy and Research at the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, said charter schools have mixed results and suggested the foundation could give money to public school districts directly.
"What returns have we all seen as a society?" she asked. "A billion dollars would provide a tremendous amount of services to a number of school districts around the country. Eyeglasses. Hearing exams. It is not as though we have things in the (traditional) public school systems that don't need to be improved."
The Walton foundation has funded charter schools since 1997 and says its start-up grants to 2,110 schools account for about a quarter of all charter schools nationally.
Some of the new funding will go to researchers who track successes and Why Wal-Mart family foundation is spending $1 billion on charter schools - CSMonitor.com:
