Big Box: How the Heirs of the Wal-Mart Fortune Have Fueled the Charter School Movement

[Hannah Bell]

...most of the foundation's largesse in education—80 percent or some $50 million a year—supports charter schooling. That money has been instrumental to the expansion of the charter school sector. “Walton money has played a strategic role in the charter school movement at a critical point in its development, helping to increase the number of schools, build an advocacy support network, and fund supportive research,” says Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, who is writing a book about the politics of charter schooling, and who is ONE OF THE FEW CHARTER SCHOOL EXPERTS in the nation WHO DOES NOT RECEIVE MoNEY FROM THE WALTON FAMILY FOUNDATION....

The Walton Family Foundation's impact can be seen throughout the charter sector. The foundation has funded hundreds of new individual charter schools, a number of charter school management companies, an array of national, state, and local charter advocacy organizations, numerous technical-assistance organizations, and a wide range of charter school research...

Blew and his colleagues have not pursued the traditional philanthropic strategy of simply funding the best proposals that come through the foundation's door. Rather, Walton, in collaboration with several other newer foundations in education, including the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation and the San Francisco-based Pisces Foundation, has actively promoted the creation of new organizations to promote school reform, conceptualizing the organizations and seeking out people to run them—a strategy that Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute has dubbed “muscular philanthropy.”

This Education Sector Connecting the Dots report examines the many ways the Walton family has funded the charter school movement...

http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=422193

[Luminous Animal]

1. Corporate control of the public square in a thousand different ways.

I skimmed the actual report and it was not critical of charter schools or the Walton family. And no wonder why!

"Author Bryan C. Hassel’s organization, Public Impact, has worked on and continues to work on projects that are funded in whole or in part by the Walton Family Foundation, and its clients include several of the organizations mentioned in this report."

[joeycola]

2. Walton Foundation contributes to Arne Duncan schools in Chicago.

[Hannah Bell]

3. unsurprisingly. "Investors" in Daley's Renaissance initiative =

Investors of $2,000,000 and Above

Anonymous (2) <<Any guess who these 2 Investors are?
Northern Trust (old-money trust/investment fund)
The Crown Family (big obama supporters)
Rowe Family Charitable Trust
Exelon Corporation
The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation, Inc


Investors of $1,000,000 to $1,999,999

Baxter International Inc
JPMorgan Chase
The Boeing Company
McCormick Foundation
The Chicago Community Trust (chicago-area foundation, whose exec committee (disburses $) includes a daley & a crown, & whose Trustee Banks = boa, jp morgan, northern trust)
McDonald’s Corp. & Ronald McDonald House Charities
Chicago High School Redesign Initiative (a project of the chicago community trust - getting to look kind of incestuous, isn't it?)
Polk Bros. Foundation
Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago (2 daleys, two pritzkers, & other cross-membership with chicago community trust leadership).
Pritzker Foundation (Big Obama funders)
CME Trust
Rauner Family Foundation
Deloitte LLP
Sara Lee Corporation
Financial Investments Corporation
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP


Investors of $500,000 to $999,999

Abbott
Kenilworth Families Partnership
The Allstate Corporation
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
AT&T
Kraft Foods
Bain & Company
Madigan Family Foundation
Bank of America <<Receiving TARP funds
Mayer Brown LLP
The Canning Foundation
Motorola Foundation
Discover Financial Services
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Ernst & Young
Sears Holdings Corporation
Fortune Brands
Sidley Austin LLP<< The lawyer firm where Michelle first worked and met Barack
Grosvenor Capital Management
W.W. Grainger, Inc
Harris Bank
Winnetka Families Partnership
HSBC – North America
Woodley Road Neighbors
Illinois Tool Works Foundation


Investors of $250,000 to $499,999

Anonymous
Reyes Holdings, LLC
Best Portion Foundation
John W. Rogers, Jr (arne duncan's business partner)
Carnegie Corporation of New York
United Airlines
Chicago Board Options Exchange
USG Corporation
Judd Enterprises, Inc
Walgreen Company
KPMG LLP
Winston & Strawn L.L.P
Peoples Gas


Investors of $100,000 to $249,999

BP Foundation
Molex Incorporated
Frank and Vera Clark
Nuveen Investments
Corn Products International, Inc
Schwarz Paper Company
Crate and Barrel
UBS AG
Dr. Scholl Foundation
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company Foundation
The Edgewater Funds


Investors of $25,000 to $99,999

Azteca Foods, Inc
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Citi Foundation
Reuters
Col Stanley R. McNeil Foundation
Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Foundation
Crain’s Communications
Ryerson Foundation
Downtown Partners Chicago
U.S. Bancorp Foundation
Evans Food Group Ltd


Investors of $24,999 and Below

ArcelorMittal
Leo Burnett USA, Inc
John and Kathleen Buck
Mesirow Financial
Keller Group, Inc
William Blair & Company


http://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/obamas-arne-duncan-sec-of-education-and-renaissance-2010/