How Philanthropy Helps Address School Quality and Overcrowding Issues

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May 13, 2004

Sometimes, as well-intentioned as governments can be, bureaucracy gets in the way and kids are the ones who ultimately suffer. Bill and Melinda Gates, through their foundation, recently showed us how a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist can fill in the gaps where governments often fail. What a generous gift the Gates' recently gave to seven non-profit organizations that work with New York City public schools, by donating $51.2 million to develop 67 smaller public high schools in the city. Gates points to America's poor graduation rate - one out of three eighth graders fails to earn a high school diploma - as evidence of the failure of traditional high schools. The problem is especially acute among poor and minority students. He says the answer is not smaller classes, but much smaller schools.

The approach has been shown to reduce violence and to increase achievement, according to Gates. "The idea is to create an environment where there's a strong relationship between the students and teachers," he says. "A lot of these high schools have a particular theme, focusing on museums, or some bring together people whose English skills are not particularly strong. But it's a school that has a cohesiveness and doesn't have quite the size where kids get lost that are typical of the very, very large high schools in urban districts."

Pretty savvy move Bill - make sure you get all those kids to use Microsoft technology too! Seriously, this sounds great and we encourage more people of wealth to step up to the plate, go beyond their immediate families and communities, by reaching out to those in need, not just in other cities but also in other countries. Athletes, such as Andre Agassi, have done so and should be recognized for "giving back" to society of what comes their way as a result of their successes. Agassi funded the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, which opened last year in his hometown of Las Vegas. Surely, this type of contribution does not put much of a dent in the wallets of such high-net worth people, whether they are athletes, celebrities or bankers.

It is safe to say that besides feeding the hungry and homeless and providing vaccines and health-related services for the all, starting and improving our world's educational systems is the highest priority that we have. Too often, people who come into money squander it or simply do not have good enough advice or knowledge of how to go about funding a school or scholarship program. There is really not much that we can do to resolve this except to encourage and applaud people like Bill Gates, Andre Agassi and Oprah Winfrey when they give back like they have done so respectably. Not to say that these are perfect people, and certainly many philanthropists give out of guilt or some egotistical reasons, but in the end, such acts of generosity by well-known philanthropists are contagious. If you have a favorite actor or athlete, I would encourage you to look them up with a Google search on the Internet and see what they are doing with their wealth, and if it is possible to contact them via email or letter, why not write them? They may never get it, but someone in their foundation or family will, and it can make a difference!

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