Just 0.8% of education philanthropy dollars were directed to racial justice from 2017 to 2019, according to research recently released by the Schott Foundation for Public Education and Candid. In an op-ed summarizing the results, the Schott Foundation’s Leah Austin and Edgar Villanueva calculated that “the philanthropic investment in racial justice works out to less than $2 per student.”
The Schott Foundation for Public Education describes itself as “a national public fund serving as a bridge between philanthropic partners and advocates.” The foundation’s mission is to build and strengthen a diverse movement in support of “fully resourced, quality Pre-K-12 public education,” and it is both outspoken and proactive in its support for communities of color, as IP has reported. In a recent op-ed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Schott President and CEO John H. Jackson called on philanthropists to support a federal racial-equity stimulus. “We’re at an inflection point in history,” Jackson wrote. “With greater public awareness of the economic as well as human costs of systemic racism, now is the time for philanthropy to act boldly.”
From racial equity to racial justice
The Schott Foundation worked with Candid to determine precisely what fraction of education philanthropy goes to racial equity and to racial justice. To distinguish between the two, the foundation used the definitions offered in the influential 2019 report “Grantmaking With a Racial Justice Lens,” by the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE). (See IP’s past coverage of the report).
“The PRE report advances the idea that racial equity is an important starting point, but racial justice evokes a higher standard,” said Leah Austin, Schott’s director of the National Opportunity to Learn Network, in a video presentation announcing the findings. “Racial equity in K-12 grantmaking addresses the achievement gap. Racial justice in K-12 grantmaking goes further to address the underlying opportunity gap.”
To illustrate the difference, Austin cited specific examples: Grants for racial bias training for teachers, mentoring programs for CONTINUE READING: Racial Equity and Justice in Education are "Drastically Underfunded," Research Finds | Schott Foundation for Public Education