Children's Scholarship Fund: National Board of Advisors
The Walton Family Foundation: Some background
The key players of Venture Philanthropy in education--including but not limited to such leaders as Gates, Walton, Fisher, and Broad--are able to exercise influence disproportionate to their size and spending power through strategic arrangements with charter and voucher-promoting organizations, think tanks, universities, school districts and schools. . . .
The Walton Family Foundation (the largest family-owned business in the United States is Wal-Mart) is the largest spender lobbying for public school privatization schemes in the form of vouchers and neo-vouchers (tax credits for private schooling). Assuredly, this has less to do with plans of the company to open Wal-Schools or interest in the public schools developing highly educated and thoughtful WalMart "greeters" capable of union-organizing to break the anti-union commitments of the company than it does with the ideological beliefs of the Walton Family that business works for them, so business should be the model for schooling. . . .
For Gates, Broad, and the Walton family (of the Walmart fortune), who are the leading venture philanthropists in education, the "right direction" is to treat public schooling like a market, to make public schooling into a market. They share a set of assumptions about public education that can be generally summarized as follows:
- Public schools have "failed," and the public sector cannot be relied upon for "good" education.
- Government is inefficient, and markets are efficient.
- Government involvement threatens rather than facilitates personal liberty.
Gates, Broad, Walton, and the other venture philanthropists largely surround themselves with likeminded advisors and personalities who embrace the basic assumptions and general direction of the foundations. The crucial issue is the extent to which VP is closed to questioning its framing assumptions about the value of teachers and the role of schools in relation to broader public struggles and problems. Put differently, VP in education is insulated from the broader democratic debate, dialogue, and deliberation about education outside the foundations.
In 1998, The Children's Scholarship Fund was strted with matching $50 million grants from Walton and financier Theodore Forstmann. Walton added more than $94 million between 2000 and 2005 alone. . . .
-- The Gift of Education: Public Education and Venture Philanthropy, by Kenneth J. Saltman
The Better Business Bureau lists 7 areas where the Children's Scholarship Fund fails to meet Standards for Charitable Accountability.
About Children's Scholarship Fund: John T. Walton
CSF Co-Founder
In Memoriam, 1946-2005
John Walton, a business investor, was very active in education reform and school choice. He was also one of the most humble and compassionate people anyone has ever known.
John co-founded the Children's Scholarship Fund in 1998 with support from the Walton Family Foundation, which invests in programs that empower parents to choose the best education for their children. Since its inception, more than 111,000 low-income children have benefitted from the children's Scholarship Fund.
Outside of his CSF involvement, John was an active board member and supporter of California Charter School Alliance, EdVoice, the Jackson Hole-based Public Education Coalition and Alliance for School Choice, a national school choice advocacy group.
National Board of Advisors
Theodore J. Forstmann
Chairman & CEO, Children's Scholarship Fund
The Hon. John B. Breaux
Senior Counsel, Patton Boggs, LLP
Eli Broad
Chairman, SunAmerica Inc.
James E. Burke
Chairman, Partnership for a Drug-Free America
Barbara Bush
Honorary Board Member
Joseph A. Califano
Jr. Chairman, Natl. Ctr. on Addiction & Substance Abuse at Columbia Univ.
Raymond G. Chambers
Henry G. Cisneros
President & CEO, American CityVista
Lester Crown
Chairman, Material Service Corporation
The Hon. Thomas A. Daschle
Former United States Senator
Dick DeVos
Former President, Alticor Inc.
Pamella DeVos
President, Pamella Roland
Stanley F. Druckenmiller
William H. Dunn
Sr. Chairman Emer., J.E. Dunn Construction Company
Ronald E. Eibensteiner
President, Wyncrest Capital
The Hon. Rev. Floyd H. Flake
Pastor & CEO, Allen AME Church United States Congressman (Ret.)
Peter M. Flanigan
Advisor, UBS Warburg LLC
Stephen Fraidin
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP
Tom Freston
Stedman Graham Chairman & CEO, S. Graham & Associates
The Hon. Luis V. Gutierrez
United States Representative
Allan B. Hubbard
President, E & A Industries Inc.
Robert L. Johnson
Founder & Chairman, The RLJ Companies
James V. Kimsey
Founding CEO & Chmn. Emer., America Online
Martin Luther King III
Founding President & CEO, Realizing the Dream, Inc.
John Kirtley
Partner, FCP Investors, Inc.
The Hon. Henry A. Kissinger
Chairman, Kissinger Associates Inc.
The Hon. Trent Lott
Former United States Senator
Peter S. Lynch
Vice Chairman, Fidelity Mgt. & Research Co.
Raymond A. Mason
Chairman & CEO, Legg Mason Inc.
Mike McCurry
Partner, Public Strategies Washington, Inc.
Margot McGinness
Forstmann Little
Michael T. Monahan
President, Monahan Enterprises, LLC
Nathan P. Myhrvold, Ph.D.
President, Intellectual Ventures
Noelle Nikpour
Dr. Antonia Coello Novello
Commissioner, New York State Dept. of Health
The Hon. Sam Nunn
Senior Partner, King & Spalding
The Hon. Charles B. Rangel
United States Representative
Diane Ravitch
Professor, New York University
Pat Riley
President, Miami Heat
Nancy Daly Riordan
Joseph E. Robert, Jr.
Chairman & CEO, J.E. Robert Cos.
Julian H. Robertson, Jr.
Chairman, Tiger Management
Arthur Rock
Principal, Arthur Rock & Co.
Darla M. Romfo
President, Children's Scholarship Fund
The Hon. Warren B. Rudman
Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
Mr. & Mrs. George P. Shultz
Will Smith
Roger T. Staubach
Chairman & CEO, The Staubach Company
Christy Walton
Jim C. Walton
Chairman, Arvest Bank Group Inc.
The Hon. Andrew Young
Chairman, GoodWorks International LLC
— Walton website and Kenneth Saltman
website
2010-06-23
http://www.scholarshipfund.org/drupal1/?q=board-staff
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
