Appleseed Joins Duncan's Calls
for Aggressive Efforts To Lift
Worst Schools
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
and
Project Appleseed President Kevin Walker
Economic
downturn
fails to dampen
philanthropy
Philanthropy is
flourishing despite
the downturn,
according to a
Barclays Wealth
report
By
Rachel Cooper of the Telegraph Published:13 Jul 2009
A
survey by Barclays Wealth of 500 wealthy individuals in the UK and US
revealed that around 75pc had not reduced their contributions to
charity, while more than one in four had increased their giving in the
last 18 months.
Now
that governments are overburdened with debt, the rich felt it more
important than ever that wealthy individuals did their bit for charity,
the report said.
When
asked where they would make cuts if the downturn continued, respondents
said they would be more likely to stint on luxury goods, holidays and
eating out than curb their donations to charity.
But
the report indicated that donors were becoming more discerning about
how they donated their money, with more than half saying they would be
more interested in investing in individual projects rather than just
giving to large charities.
Emma
Turner of Barclays Wealth said: "In some ways, the recession and its
knock-on effects have galvanised the attitudes and approaches taken by
wealthy donors, who are in a bullish mood to not only carry on giving,
but make an even bigger impact in the future."
She said the
findings showed younger philanthropists have a stronger commitment to
giving than the older generation.
Stimulus Falls Short On School
Construction
According
to the 21st Century School Fund, The American Reinvestment and Recovery
Act of 2009 - the economic stimulus legislation - fails to address the
deficit in school modernization. It misses
an opportunity to maximize jobs in a way that could have begun to
eliminate tremendous disparity in public school conditions experienced
by our nation's public school children. School facilities are a key
part of our nation's public infrastructure and warrant federal
investment, just like roads, bridges, and transit.
The $6.6 billion allocated for PK-12 school renovation and repair, if
targeted to the neediest students and buildings, could create safe,
healthy learning environments and increase access to state-of-the-art
school facilities. The addition of $20 billion of tax incentives for
qualified school construction borrowing will also improve conditions,
but only in more affluent school districts.
In the final stimulus package, provisions for accountability, equity,
and environmental improvements were eliminated. Because of this,
it is
critical for states to ensure resources are allocated in ways that are
educationally appropriate, neighborhood friendly, and environmentally
sustainable. This means funding projects that
(1) target the
neediest
students and the school buildings in the poorest condition;
(2)
maximize improvements in education and use of natural resources; and
(3) include
school districts and community members in critical
decisions.
States and school districts are often overwhelmed by the level of their
infrastructure needs. This leads to an understatement of
need. This
lack of information hampered the President and other Congressional
supporters of federal funding for school construction. To ensure
public school children, especially from low income families are not
left behind in the future, far better documentation of public school
infrastructure deficiencies is needed.
The Department of Education needs to establish a national publicly
accessible database on the inventory, condition and design of our
public school buildings. A start towards this will be
careful
adherence to the federal provisions for accountability and transparency
in the spending of these $6.6 billion for school construction.