Broad Foundation Dedicates $40 Million To Continuing Prize For Urban Education

For the last decade, the Broad Foundation, started by Los Angeles real estate mogul Eli Broad and his wife Edythe, has handed out an annual prize to high-achieving urban schools.

To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the prize, the Broad Foundation has endowed the Broad Prize for Urban Education with $40 million.

The prize is awarded to large urban school districts who have demonstrated improvement in students' performance. Scholarships are then doled out to low-income students, helping them make dreams of college a reality.

The $40 million in funding is intended to secure the long-term viability of the prize, which will be handled out for many years to come.

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy,

In another move aimed at securing the sustainability of the Broad Prize for Urban Education, the foundation said in a statement that it will reduce the annual award from $2-million shared among five districts to $1-million and four winners.

Comments

[whatsthat1]

02:45 PM on 03/30/2011

Chaulk up another failure from the Broad academy. Thomas Brady of the Providence RI school system. It appears between budget problems, a tough boss, and a bunch of angry parents got to be to much for him and the Broad academy never prepared him for it. So after 3 years years of a high salary, Providence has nothing to show for it. As for RI's other Broad graduate, Deborah Gist, well it's only been a little over a year but soon people will be checking on her results which don't appear to be too good at this point.
http://www.ri-specialeducation.com

[BoxOfficeWeekend]

02:20 AM on 03/28/2011

Bailing out public school discricts will do little to resolve the long-term problem. The source of the problem requires more than money.

http://writingindustry.com/p204607-how-can-i-make-money-writing.cfm

[mrskorn]

01:32 PM on 03/27/2011

Check out the history of his Broad Superintendent's Academy. A high percentage of his "graduates", who have become superintendents around the country are getting fired for mishandling things in their jobs. No one seems to tell the public about this, and what is really disgusting is that these people just move into other education jobs to wreak more havoc.

These philanthropic "educators" are making a mess of our education system, while claiming to reform it. Everyone should read up on it!!

[becut]

10:57 PM on 03/24/2011

Broad was CEO of AIG do we really want him controlling & deciding policy with his donations for children.

[DriversLicense]

07:39 PM on 03/23/2011

From the Broad Foundation Annual Report 2009: "The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned. With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments—charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards—the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted."

[DriversLicense]

06:58 PM on 03/23/2011

Broad is a very wealthy man and it has bought him a lot of influence. He has a definite agenda including busting the teacher unions. One of his foundations has even "loaned" employees to the Department of Education to further his agenda from the inside. My question: Why do the wealthy get to decide policy just because they are wealthy?

[Sam Salinitis]

02:18 PM on 03/23/2011

awwwww......is this how the rich get over the guilt of looting the capitalist system?

[homer9]

04:20 PM on 03/23/2011

wow, r u on target!! Of course our govt doesnt seem to understand that this philanthropy just doesnt cut it. We dont want hand outs given when the rich feel like it, when we deserve to have the necessities incorporated into thebudget just like any first world country.

[JScott]

05:31 PM on 03/24/2011

Yeah Eli just PAY MORE TAXES, you wouldn't have to have this 'foundation prize' it's wwwaaaayyy to cheap to fill the need.

Besides the homes you built weren't all that great.

[umbrarchist]

01:07 PM on 03/23/2011

That's nice. How much would it cost to create a National Recommended Reading List?

We already have libraries on the Internet to distribute it. What about all of the public domain books to help keep costs down. What about science fiction books that contain good science.

All Day September, by Roger Kuykendall
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24161/24161-h/24161-h.htm

I bet creating the list would cost less than $5,000,000. It might make it too easy for too many kids to learn too much though.

[researcher]

01:01 AM on 03/23/2011

if you think charity will bail out this nation's problems think again.

when a nation has to resort to charity it is either third world or fast getting there.

we make heros out of the 2%ers and their charities while they spend billions to control the gov to get tax breaks that puts billions in their banks that cannot fail.

most of these billionaires pay less % in taxes than the average family in america.

these donations by the mega rich are a con but a very good one, tax breaks through their lobbyists control of politicans and to keep the have nots thinking it will all work out and that the billionaires are paying their fair share in society with their charities donations.

[JScott]

05:32 PM on 03/24/2011

And don't forget all the subsidies he wants to build his museum for HIS art in downtown LA.

[TFT]

08:06 PM on 03/22/2011

Why don't these multi-billionaires bail out school districts with their money, if they care about kids so much?

Oh, they only care about kids when they can make money or gain power by caring about kids.

Nevermind.

[changing]

03:26 PM on 03/22/2011

Broad is trying to take over the school. He is pushing union busting and privatization. I hope this money really goes to the kids. If he has any left over, maybe he can send some to Detroit.

[tr88]

08:11 PM on 03/22/2011

The ultimate goal is education, not Union preservation. Unions like to talk about helping Kids, when all they really want is more for themselves.

[TFT]

08:05 PM on 03/23/2011

The unions aren't trying to take money away from kids. Unions are usually fighting to keep things they already got but the district would like to take them away. My district had to make teachers contribute to their health care insurance, after we bargained for the district to pay all of it. But then prices went up (because we have a for-profit system, and not single payer like every other industrialized nation).

Unions are notorious for fighting for better working conditions because folks like you would rather not fund schools.

Teacher unions, made up of teachers, exist to protect teachers from the whims of management. The union's purpose was never to support kids. That's just silly to think that a union would forgo it's responsibility to it's members in favor of some other group.

Teachers fight for their students daily, hourly--especially given the cuts that now impact every facet of education. We are good at making due with less.

And you want to blame unions, for something. Do you even know what you are arguing for? Against?

[JScott]

05:33 PM on 03/24/2011

all they really want is more for themselves­

Well so does Eli.