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How Have Large Donations Affected Education Policy In New York City?
theodp writes: According to Chalkbeat, the expansion of charter schools, the movement to break New York City's large schools into smaller ones, and the push to teach computer science have something in common: the influence of philanthropy. Though contributions from big donors amount to only a fraction of New York City's education spending, they still have a real impact on public school policy, said Jeffrey Henig, the co-author of The New Education Philanthropy: Politics, Policy and Reform, which details how powerful individuals and organizations increasingly use donations to advance policies they support. Increasingly, Henig adds, some of those donors are paying more attention to advocacy, creating at least the appearance, if not the reality, of grassroots support.
If there are any conditions, it's not a "donation", it is a bribe, and it shouldn't be tax deductible.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The biggest single source of political donations has traditionally been the teachers unions. This has resulted in terrible corruption of the political process and lousy educational outcomes for kids, placing the personal interests of teachers ahead of those of children. The fact that in recent years, supporters for charter schools and private donations have managed to reach similar contributions is a glimmer of hope. But even money aside, teachers' unions still have way too much political power, and charter schools are really not a good solution either.
I love how the top republican donor is the Las Vegas Sands, a shining icon of vice, consumption, sloth and corruption. Very telling.
The term has more than one meaning. School systems do need reforming. The obstacle is the parents. The idea that my kid must be promoted is behind the great dumbing down of public schools. Raise the bar for getting a grade and the able students will prosper and the less able students will be labeled for what they are. As it now stands the worst students dictate the depth at which a subject can be taught. The parents make the phone calls and the mayor and other officials insist that the lesser minds do well in classes. The catch is that the lesser minds will do little for society whereas the sharper minds can do a great deal for all of us.
The totals do not include contributions to 501(c) organizations, whose political spending has increased markedly in recent cycles.
So since this is only money given direclty to candidates, and not to the dark money front groups, like the 50 odd different ones run by the the Koch's that they will be distrubuting a billion dollars through. a billion being 10x more than the top 10 of that link contributed in 2014.
So you provided skewed information, and then made a bullshit point based on it.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Fact: The largest donors in the US political process gave almost a billion dollars - all to Democrats.
you mean 'bullshit'.
Fact: the largest donors arent even in that list because its only the direct contributions, not the dark money spend helping campaigns that campaigns arent even allowed to know about or coordinate with. you know...where 99% of political money -actually- gets spent.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
I like how every republican poster on slashdot shamefully posts as AC all the time. Just like the dark money flooding the conservative political sphere...no accountability. It's even funnier that they use so many baby-ish words like "dimocrat" and "dumbocrat." So eloquent. Where can I sign up for your anonymous and poorly written newsletter?