Why Is The Walton Family Foundation Putting Another $250 Million Into Charter Schools?
Brought To You By Wal-Mart? How the Walton Family Foundation’s Ideological Pursuit is Damaging Charter Schooling - Cashing in on Kids - http://cashinginonkids.com/?p=1520
Billionaire sister and brother Alice and Jim Walton have explained this week’s $250 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation to aid in building charter school facilities as a salute to their parents’ emphasis on education. “My parents spent a lot of time with us growing up just enforcing the fact that education is what could really be the great equalizer in the world,” says Alice Walton, the only daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and his wife Helen, in a video promoting the initiative.
“The importance of providing high-quality education for as many children as we possibly can, for all children, I think is critical to the future of this country,” adds Jim Walton, the youngest of the three Walton sons. He has a fortune that FORBES estimates to be $36.3 billion and his sister’s fortune is estimated at $35 billion.
“I think the charter sector has demonstrated that there can be hope, there can be opportunity, there can be high-quality education provided within many of our low-income areas in this country,” he adds.
The foundation describes the Building Equity Initiative as “a first-of-its-kind nonprofit effort to provide charter schools with access to capital to create and expand facilities.” The nonprofit Civic Builders will manage the initiative, which will focus on 17 cities* where the foundation already makes grants.
Charter schools often struggle to find appropriate buildings and pay for them. It’s often the reason they can’t get off the ground. Only one in three states with charter schools provides facilities. I know from my experience on the public school board in Hoboken, N.J., that when charters rent space from the district, the rules can be onerous. One charter school was not allowed to hang a sign advertising its annual application period and lottery on the outside of the public school building it rented.Why Is The Walton Family Foundation Putting Another $250 Million Into Charter Schools? - Forbes:
