America, Where Altruism By Any Other Name is Narcissism
Big-time philanthropy is just as narcissistic and capitalistic as any other part of American culture. The recent Los Angeles Unified School District teachers’ strike is but one example of private philanthropy’s underhanded impact on public institutions. Teachers had received only one salary increase since 2007, and had worked off only one three-year contract since 2011. This, in addition to overcrowded classrooms, an insufficient number of support staff, and the siphoning of public education funds for public charter schools were among the reasons 30,000 teachers walked out for six days last month.
Some of the reasons for this strike, though, go back more than a decade, to the influences of the Walton Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They seeded money and influence as part of LAUSD’s push for public charter schools and a three-tiered system of teacher evaluations, both of which have been proven unreliable for raising student achievement. As Sally Ho reported for the Associated Press last year, “the Waltons are the biggest backers of the powerhouse California Charter School Association, which has gotten more than $100 million since 2006 with support coming also from Gates, Michael and Susan Dell and the Mark Zuckerburg [sic]-backed Silicon Valley Community foundations.”
