Private money, public schools

New Crisis, The, May/Jun 2002 by Joiner, Lottie L

As the nation's public schools grapple with a failing educational system that mandates standardized tests, teacher accountability and tough measures, a number of those in the private sector are trying to use their financial means to help students most affected by the new standards: minorities.

Philanthropists Eli Broad and Bill Gates have both committed millions of dollars to help minority students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds get on equal footing with their white or more privileged counterparts.

This spring, Broad, the billionaire chief executive of SunAmerica Inc., created the Broad Prize for Urban Education to help restore confidence in public education. The $500,000 prize is the largest gift of its kind and will be awarded to urban districts that make the greatest overall academic gains while reducing the achievement gap between minorities and whites. The awarded funds will be used for scholarships to students in the winning districts. The chosen districts will also be encouraged to share their success formulas with other districts.

During the same week, Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced the creation of new high schools to help disadvantaged youth. Gates is donating more than $40 million to open 70 high schools that will help disadvantaged students stay in school. The high schools will provide college-- level work and technology training to juniors and seniors in underserved areas. Students at the schools will be able to earn two-year associate degrees. The mission of the program is to keep disadvantaged youth from dropping out of high school and encouraging them to attend college.

"The fact that both philanthropists are using their funds to improve public schools systems is making an important statement," says Warren Simmons, executive director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, an organization located at Brown University that works to improve the conditions of schools in urban areas serving disadvantaged children.

Simmons says that one of the biggest challenges in education is building success in urban systems that are sorely underfunded. He believes gifts such as Broad's, which highlight successful district practices, will help change that.

Florence Johnson, past president of the Council of Urban Boards of Education and vice president of student achievement for the Buffalo Board of Education in New York, says the gifts will help show the powers that be what can happen when schools are properly funded, but they are not the total answer.

She says that if educators could work with philanthropists to determine where we need to put the most emphasis, it would help. But for right now, anything that's going to assist in raising student achievement is going to be beneficial.

"I think it's an important first step for people of means to recognize that we will not have a strong public education system until all of our kids are educated well," says Johnson. "We in the state and federal government have to recognize that in order to have a democratic society, you have to have an educated citizenry."

James P. Comer, M.D., of Yale University's child studies center, agrees.

He says the Broad and Gates' gifts will help a little bit, but probably won't get to the children most in need.

"You don't get to the underlying problem," says Comer, the Maurice Falk professor of child psychiatry and founder of the Comer School Development Program. "The focus is on test scores. You have people teaching to the test because they are trying to raise test scores. You get them up temporarily, but you haven't really changed the child. You haven't changed the teacher. You haven't changed the school. The scores will go up in the beginning. But they won't continue to go up."

Comer says the underlying problem is that many Black and minority children are underdeveloped and don't have the kinds of experiences to bring them to school ready to learn.

"It takes more than academic achievement to succeed," says Comer. "You have to have social skills, confidence, self-discipline. The problem with many policy makers, and those who developed programs for Black people, is that they mean well, but they've never been Black and they've never been poor."