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25% of Charter Schools Owe Their Soul To the Walmart Store

Posted by timothy on from the so-you're-saying-this-bothers-you? dept.

theodp writes "Among the billionaires who helped Bill Gates pave the way for charter schools in WA was Walmart heiress Alice Walton. The Walton Family Foundation spent a whopping $158+ million in 2012 on what it calls 'systemic K-12 education reform,' which included $60,920,186 to 'shape public policy' and $652,209 on 'research and evaluation.' Confirming the LA Times' speculation about its influence, the Walton Foundation issued a press release Wednesday boasting it's the largest private funder of charter school 'startups,' adding that it has supported the opening of 1 in 4 charter schools in the U.S. since 1997 through its 1,500 'investments.' But as some charter school kids have learned the hard way, what the rich man giveth, he can also taketh away. For the time being, though, it looks like America's going to continue to depend on the tax-free kindness of wealthy strangers to educate its kids. For example, while it was nice to see the value of Shop Class recognized, the White House on Monday called on businesses, foundations and philanthropists to fund proposed 'Maker Spaces' in schools and libraries. Hey, when the U.S. Secretary of Education turns to corporate sponsors and auctions to fund his Mother's afterschool program for kids of low-income families in the President's hometown, don't look for things to change anytime soon."

4 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Who gives a shit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Does anybody know a decent "news for nerds" style discussion forum? Preferably one that bears as little resemblance to slashdot beta as possible?

  2. Damn the Beta, full speed ahead! by runeghost · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet.

    On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design.

    Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system. If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this ] in a new tab. After seeing that, click
    here to return to classic Slashdot.

    We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.

    We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott
    Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta Commentors - only discuss Beta http://slashdot.org/recent - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories

    Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention. Links of note:
    Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.p... Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.p... Alternative Slashdot: altslashdot.org IRC Discussion: freenode #slashdot-refugees

  3. Maybe they could fund a decent slashdot beta? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    because the current one is shit and dice / timothy know it.

  4. Wow by sunking2 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    This site has really gone down the crapper.