Doing It Their Way: Private Money Helping New York City Public Schools
David Herszenhorn of the New York Times reports on the efforts by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to secure private money to benefit public schools:
New money or old, donors have been enthusiastic enough to write seven- and eight-figure checks. As a result, the school system has been the largest beneficiary in a mayoralty that has reached to the private sector, strategically and aggressively, for all sorts of support.
While Mr. Bloomberg’s personal philanthropy has turned sharply toward grass-roots organizations in recent years, with the obvious political benefits, the donations by his friends and acquaintances in the clubby world of wealthy philanthropists have turned just as markedly toward the mayor’s No. 1 priority: public education.
By comparison, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, the administration’s wider fund-raising operation, has raised a total of about $60 million, City Hall officials said. By far the largest sums for education came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to start small schools, with much of its gifts channeled through nonprofit groups. Other big givers include the Wallace Foundation; the Partnership for New York City, a business group; the Broad Foundation; the Robin Hood Foundation, the Pumpkin Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. Corporate donors include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.
Donors to the schools, many of whom have been attending black-tie benefits together for years, said the mayor and the chancellor have transformed the way the school system relates to gift-givers, by improving communication and creating a sense of professionalism.
“I come from the business world; I’m used to a world where there is freedom and accountability and that never seemed to exist in the world of public education,” Mr. Reich said.
Maybe this is one of the things Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has in mind as he tries to assert more mayoral control over Los Angeles schools.
