Just Follow The Money

Take a look at the listing for “Grants and Contributions Paid” in the Broad Foundation’s 990s to get an idea of the organizations which Eli Broad supports. Those documents can be located on the National Center for Charitable Statistics Web site using the Employer Identification Number (EIN) 954686318. The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is "the national clearinghouse of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States."

You won’t be surprised to learn that it is rare-to-non-existent for the Broad Foundation to make a gift to any traditional public K-12 school. On the other hand, for at least the past decade, Broad has regularly supported many organizations which are working hard to make the traditional public schools extinct.

The following are just a few of Broad’s favorite organizations, along with their Employer Identification Numbers (EINs).

• Alliance for College Ready Public Schools - 954779029
• Aspire Public Schools - 943311088
• Broad Center for the Management of School Systems - 202692176
• Center for Education Reform - 521847187
• Center for Reform of School Systems Inc - 760681611
• Excellent Education Development - 954766001
• Green Dot Educational Project - 954679811
• Leadership Public Schools Inc - 731643646
• Los Angeles Parents Union - 202207418
• New Leaders (aka New Leaders for New Schools) - 043519203
• New Schools Fund, d/b/a NewSchools Venture Fund - 943281780

In viewing the 990s of the above recipients, you’ll find out how much “direct public support” they have received (philanthropic gifts, grants and other contributions). The sources are not listed, however the organizations' Web sites usually list the major supporters, so you can start to track the sources from there.

Janelle Scott published a paper last spring, "The Politics of Venture Philanthropy in Charter School Policy and Advocacy." Scott is an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley, formerly of NYU. Her paper explains the billionaires' strategy to insert charter schools into communities by the careful maneuvering of their immense foundation-giving. Read more about her investigation here.

According to Scott, the "gifts" of these foundations are going to a broad range of

• charter advocacy groups
• pro-charter research organizations
• alternative teacher, principal, and superintendent training programs
• charter school development organizations

You’ll notice that almost all of the education-oriented organizations which Broad supports can be categorized into one of these four groups.

In the name of "philanthropy," a highly functioning network has now been established by the corporate forces with the purpose to increase the number of charter schools in the U.S. The portrait of this network is clearly revealed when following the “education reform” destinations of Eli Broad's money.

DON'T BE FOOLED. This network was NOT established to improve education for America's shrinking middle class, nor for its growing underclass. This project was undertaken by a small set of people who are obsessed with money and power. They are intent on undermining our public schools (and what's left of our democracy) by using an assortment of approaches -- each one potentiating the other -- with the ultimate goal to:

• destabilize communities by fostering the growth of competing and bickering factions
• detach schools from the democratic process (the government)
• continue to cut spending on public education
• transfer control of public schools from the American citizenry into the hands of private business

Broad Henchwoman Directing DOE's Race To The Top

Last May, Arne Duncan appointed Joanne Weiss as Director of Race To The Top, the multi-billion dollar competitively earned fund which Duncan and Obama have designated to "encourge and reward States that are creating the conditions for [Eli Broad's designed plan of] education innovation and reform." With states so desperate for money, they are essentially being forced to comply.

Joanne Weiss' most recent employment was as Partner and COO at NewSchools Venture Fund. Her job description states, “she focuses on investment strategy and management assistance to a variety of the firm's portfolio ventures, and oversees the organization's operations. As part of this work, she serves on the boards of Aspire Public Schools, Green Dot Public Schools, Leadership Public Schools, New Leaders for New Schools, Revolution Foods, Rocketship Education and Teachscape.”

NewSchools Venture Fund, Aspire, Green Dot and New Leaders for New Schools have received millions of dollars from Eli Broad. You could say that Broad paid for a significant amount of Weiss’ salary. The 2006 - 990 for NSVF declared that Weiss was compensated $228,000 (page 28). During 2005, the NSVF received a total of $13,111,610 in gifts, grants and contributions (pg. 13). That year, Broad gave $1,860,000, or 14.2% of the total, in contributions.

Contributions from Eli Broad to the following organizations

	Aspire Public Schools¹	Green Dot Public Schools ²	New Leaders for New Schools ³	NewSchools Venture Fund 	Total
2001	-	-	$1,056,000	-	$1,056,000
2002	-	-	$1,218,000	$530,000	$1,748,000
2003	-	-	$2,250,000	$470,000	$2,720,000
2004	$1,500,000	$700,000	$2,000,000	$500,000	$4,700,000
2005	$1,800,000	$700,000	$720,000	$1,860,000	$5,080,000
2006	$450,000	$700,000	$375,000	$650,000	$2,175,000
2007	$145,200	$1,210,040	$375,000	$3,595,000	$5,325,240
Total	$3,895,200	$3,310,040	$7,994,000	$7,605,000	$22,804,240

¹ Aspire Public Schools: The charter management organization co-founded by Don Shalvey and Reed Hastings, the founder and CEO of Netflix. Just before this, they co-authored the California Charter School Initiative which was signed into law in 1998, thus lifting the cap on charter schools in California.

² Green Dot Public Schools: The charter management organization which was launched by Steve Barr with support of Reed Hastings. Hastings also co-founded EdVoice with John Doerr (investment banker) and is connected to Eli Broad and the recently deceased Don Fisher (The Gap, KIPP’s big supporter). Broad and Fisher were co-chairs on the EdVoice board.

³ New Leaders for New Schools: The principal training program created by this faction that implements an alternative curriculum and pays its participants a salary while they are being trained. NLFNS also makes arrangements for school districts to assign the participants to administrative positions at schools. NLFNS also trains its participants for administrative positions in charter schools.

 NewSchools Venture Fund: Some Broad Foundation 990s list this as the “New Schools Fund.” The NSVF is a major hub where funds are accumulated and then distributed to charter management organizations and “education entrepreneurs,” both nonprofit and for-profit. Reed Hastings helped to start the NSVF. In 2003 it also received $22 million from the Gates Foundation to “create systems of charter schools through nonprofit charter management organizations.”