Billionaires Start $60 Million Schools Effort (Strong American Schools)

I applaud what the Gates and Broad Foundations and Gov. Romer are doing, as it's critical to raise the issue of our failing schools to the top of the national agenda.  Not to say I don't have some comments, however: nothing about choice, charter schools or empowering parents?! 

 

And I hope this campaign goes FAR beyond the initial messaging -- related to the initial advertisement (http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20070425_eductionAD.pdf), even the staunchest defenders of the status quo would agree that good schools are critical for our nation and there's plenty of room for improvement; they would simply say to spend more money -- and into more controversial topics like educating people about what works and, critically, what doesn't (for example, spending more money without reform; wouldn't it be great, for example, to run advertisements highlighting the points in these slides: www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Spendingmyth.pdf?  I don't think most Americans know, for example, that we've roughly DOUBLED per pupil spending in the past 30 years (slide 2) and have NOTHING to show for it -- studnet achievement hasn't budged (slide 3)).

Eli Broad and Bill Gates, two of the most important philanthropists in American public education, have pumped more than $2 billion into improving schools. But now, dissatisfied with the pace of change, they are joining forces for a $60 million foray into politics in an effort to vault education high onto the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.

Experts on campaign spending said the project would rank as one of the most expensive single-issue initiatives ever in a presidential race, dwarfing, for example, the $22.4 million that the Swift Vets and P.O.W.s for Truth group spent against Senator John Kerry in 2004, and the $7.8 million spent on advocacy that year by AARP, the lobby for older Americans.

Under the slogan “Ed in ’08,” the project, called Strong American Schools, will include television and radio advertising in battleground states, an Internet-driven appeal for volunteers and a national network of operatives in both parties.

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April 25, 2007

Billionaires Start $60 Million Schools Effort

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/education/25schools.html

Eli Broad and Bill Gates, two of the most important philanthropists in American public education, have pumped more than $2 billion into improving schools. But now, dissatisfied with the pace of change, they are joining forces for a $60 million foray into politics in an effort to vault education high onto the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.