The Rise of Venture Philanthropy and the Ongoing Neoliberal Assault on Public Education: The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation

Abstract

A crucial part of venture philanthropy’s aim to radically transform public schooling on the model of the market involves remaking administrator preparation on the corporate model.  The Eli and Edith Broad Education Foundation is the most active and aggressive Venture Philanthropy with this focus. Venture philanthropy initiatives including those of the Broad foundation need to be recognized for their hostility to public and critical forms of schooling as well as their alignment with the broader movement to privatize and dismantle public schooling.  It is incumbent upon educators to challenge the promotion of retrograde positivism, the use of private money to steer public educational reform debates, and the corporate hijacking of public institutions especially at a moment when the central tenets of neoliberal ideology are revealed to be utterly untenable.