The Gift of Education Public Education and Venture Philanthropy

by Saltman, Kenneth J.

• ISBN13: 9780230615144
• ISBN10: 0230615147
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Although educational philanthropy accounts for just a fraction of educational spending in the U.S., its institutions have recently acquired disproportionate influence and control over educational policy and practice.The Gift of Educationis the first book to dissect the new "venture philanthropy" in education. It evaluates the educational and social implications of private super-rich donors leading reform to K-12, teacher education, and higher education. Challenging common representations of the new philanthropy as primarily about care, generosity, and opportunity, Satlman argues that the new philanthropy is at the forefront of a movement to undermine universal public education at multiple levels. That is, venture philanthropy is contributing to both the privatization of public schooling as well as the transformation of public schooling on the model of corporate culture from charter schools to voucher schemes, from the remaking of teacher education and educational leadership to making students into consumers, knowledge into commodities, and classrooms into boardrooms. Educational philanthropy that appears almost exclusively in mass media and policy circles as selfless generosity poses significant threats to the democratic possibilities and realities of public education. Though focused on educational philanthropy, Saltman addresses much broader questions about the ideological agendas at the center of philanthropic giving, the educational and political implications of the privatization of public schooling, the assumptions behind educational obligations, and the roles that schools play in democratic societies.

Author Biography

Kenneth J. Saltman, Ph.D. is an associate professor at DePaul University. He is the author of Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools (2007), which was awarded the American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Book Award, The Edison Schools (2005), Strange Love, Or How We Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Market (with Robin Truth Goodman, 2002), and Collateral Damage: Corporatizing Public Schools – A Threat to Democracy (2000). His edited collections include Schooling and the Politics of Disaster (2007), Education as Enforcement: the Militarization and Corporatization of Schools (2003), and The Critical Middle School Reader (with Enora Brown, 2005).

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Foregrounding Venture Philanthropy: The Corporatization of Public Schools	p. 13
The Trojan School: How Venture Philanthropy is Corporatizing K-12	p. 33
From Traditional to Venture Philanthropy	p. 63
The Gift of Corporatizing Educational Leadership: The Broad Foundation and the Venture Philanthropy View of Leadership	p. 79
The Gift of Corporatizing Teacher Education and Higher Education	p. 99
The Gift of Education: Education Beyond Economism	p. 119
Conclusion	p. 141
Coda: Obama's Betrayal of Public Education? Arne Duncan and the Corporate Model of Schooling	p. 149
Appendix	p. 157
Notes	p. 163
Index	p. 177
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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