LA Philanthropy Watch

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday (in an article by Mitchell Landsberg) that the Ford Foundation has pledged $100 million over 7 years to seven cities – including Los Angeles – in support of secondary public education.

Jeannie Oaks, former director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Accesss, will lead the initiative, which will focus on four areas (as described in the foundation’s announcement):

• Teaching quality: In addition to having a well-prepared teacher, high-quality instruction is the product of teachers and other school staff working together to create a great learning environment. Ford said it would support efforts that approach instruction and learning as a collaborative process and a shared responsibility—where a culture of excellence is cultivated and best practices are exchanged across the school.
• More learning time: There is broad agreement that extending the school day and year are key to improving academic outcomes for students. How that time is filled is essential. Ford will promote initiatives that show how poorer school districts can offer high-quality learning opportunities over a lengthened day and year.
• Stronger accountability: The foundation argues that standardized tests are a blunt and inadequate tool by which to gauge student learning and school effectiveness, focusing accountability on only a small slice of what parents and the public expects. The initiative will support reformers advancing more meaningful methods of assessment and accountability.
• Robust school funding: Many state finance systems fail to allocate enough resources to provide quality schooling for all students. Others perpetuate inequality by relying on property taxes to fund school districts, leaving poorer communities without adequate school resources. Ford’s initiative will advance policies that address these vexing issues.

The other cities represented are New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and Denver.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s report on this pledge noted the funding challenges the Ford Foundation has experienced with the economic slowdown:

“Due to a decline in its endowment, the $9.6-billion organization closed offices in Vietnam and Russia, eliminating 30 staff positions, and 60 of its 550 staff members took buyouts that were offered earlier this year.”

“Parent alert: the Walt Disney Company is now offering refunds for all those ‘Baby Einstein’ videos that did not make children into geniuses.”  Thus began a story by Tamar Lewin in yesterday’s New York Times.

Disney is offering a full refund to anyone who purchased a Baby Einstein DVD in the last five years. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood – which has focused relentlessly on this issue – is claiming victory.

The controversy is simple: Disney marketed the products as educational and millions were sold for babies and toddlers.  But the American Academy of Pediatricians recommends that children under 2 years old watch no videos at all; the nonprofit campaign cited studies suggesting that TV exposure for children under 3 is harmful – creating attention problems by age 7.

Yesterday at a conference, I heard complaints about the lack of power nonprofits have relative to rich, powerful interests. Not always though.

Walt Disney Company had revenues of $37.8 billion in 2008.  The nonprofit that runs the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood had revenues of $14 million (in 2007, the most recent year I could find).

The photo is from coverbrowser.com.  You may not be able to see it, but the box reads, “AGES 1+ Years.”

Update, October 26: Warren Olney spoke with NYT reporter Tamar Lewin about Baby Einstein during the Reporter’s Notebook segment of To the Point this afternoon.

This morning’s Los Angeles Times has a feature by Carla Rivera on the decision by UCLA not to pursue planning for a second campus of UCLA Lab School in South Los Angeles or Pico-Union.  University administrators cited the current economic environment and questions about the best model for new campuses as reasons for halting the process.

UCLA announced plans in January 2008 for two new campuses in inner-city neighborhoods.  The Lab School (formerly known as “UES” or “Seeds” – short for Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School) was renamed last March to clarify the school’s mission, “to promote innovation and excellence in education through research, outreach, and teaching and learning.” Innovative models and practices are passed on to K-12 teachers and administrators through workshops, conferences, partnerships, and published research.  With the planned opening of  new campuses, the Lab School sought a more direct role in boosting academic achievement and bolstering college readiness in areas where poverty and low expectations are the rule.

Two days ago the Los Angeles Times featured an article by Seema Mehta that began this way, “As thousands of laid off California teachers sit out the school year, educators are worried about the long-term effect of losing so many teachers.”

Thousands of California have lost their jobs this year due to budget cuts.  If they find other careers or move out of state, this represents a huge loss – and a threat to the long-term economic viability of the state.

In the interest of balance, here’s a link I saw today at Causecast (”a one stop philanthropy shop”) on How To Become A Teacher.

The August 28 Wall St. Journal featured a profile of Eli Broad, who talked about two of his philanthropic interests, education reform and the arts.  The Broad Foundations focus on education, science and medicine, and the arts.  Among the education initiatives the foundation funds are: charter schools, including both KIPP and Green Dot schools (each of which has a presence in LA), Teach for America, management training programs for administrators in urban areas, and a prize for large urban school districts that improve student performance.

Mr. Broad’s negative views of public education in Los Angeles explain why the Broad Superintendents Academy has only placed one person at LAUSD.  “If we put 10 fellows in there, they’d leave because they’d have to work with a terrible bureaucracy, a regressive teachers union and a mayor that talks a good game but isn’t really interested in taking over schools,” he tells the Journal’s Naomi Schaefer Riley.  He also suggests getting rid of education schools, which he believes have “the lowest ranking students at a university.”

In the video I posted, Mr. Broad suggests that American K-12 education was the best in the world in the ’50s and ’60s, but it deteriorated in the 70s and 80s. He believes this has had a huge negative impact on American competitiveness. His reform agenda includes: a longer school day and school year, incentive compensation for teachers (including differential pay for math and science teachers), a national math and science curriculum, public school choice, and charter schools.

The Journal article also mentions Mr. Broad’s belief in “the democratization of the arts” and his views on risk-taking and philanthropy.

Mr. Broad talks about education reform from roughly the 4-minute 30-second mark through the 8-minute mark.

Friends of the Observatory will be celebrating Cosmic Conjunction 2009 with presentation of the world premier of Arthur B. Rubinstein’s “Observations” narrated live by Leonard Nimoy and performed by Symphony In The Glen Orchestra.  This event on Sunday, October 4, featuring gourmet picnic basket dinners by Wolfgang Puck, will take place under the full moon.

Steve Lopez features Melanie Lundquist, a board member on Mayor Villaraigosa’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, who pledged $50 million – $5 million a year for ten years – in September 2007.  He notes that results reported recently at the Partnership’s schools were “a mixed bag of modest gains and just as many disappointments.”

Mrs. Lundquist is undaunted, convinced that the Partnership’s approach (described in the strategic plan available on its website) will become a national model of school reform.  The column describes her passion for helping the children in our schools and her personal involvement with the Partnership.

Update: On August 25, Philanthropy Today featured a report and link to this Steve Lopez column.

Here are seven items from the web:

1. A bleak note on California’s economy, which is far and away the most critical environmental factor affecting fund raising prospects in the nonprofit sector, from the LA Times’ website.  

2. Speaking of fund raising: The LA Times’ front page features a story on the new law school at the University of California, Irvine – where classes begin Monday for the inaugural class.  The article reviews the school’s well qualified students, highly regarded faculty, innovative approach to legal education, and the controversy UCI’s Chancellor created when he fired (and later re-hired) Erwin Chemerinsky as the school’s first dean nearly two years ago.

And how does this article begin?  With fund raising, of course, “In a challenging fundraising climate …” This is a reminder that in recent years, and not just at a time of economic crisis in California, public (taxpayer) support for the University of California continues to decline – requiring the university to seek philanthropic dollars to sustain itself.

3. The Daily News features an item on the Dodgers’ charity, ThinkCure, which supports research to find a cure for cancer.  (My first sports post!)

4. Mike Burns at Nonprofit Board Crisis commented Wednesday on the brouhaha over the $1 million salary of LACMA’s CEO.  He raises several questions, “What I really scratch my head about is why this is indeed the going rate.  Why are execs like this considered so ‘valuable’ and necessary to their trustees?  There are after all lots of other nonprofits where the exec has to proportionately raise lots and lots of money and they aren’t paid this handsomely.  And, in these times, aren’t the trustees raising any money?”

5. Yesterday’s Los Angeles Times features a story about Birmingham Community Charter High School – a newly established 501(c)(3), which battled many obstacles to exit LAUSD management and become a charter school, has started the new school year.

6. The WNBA is hosting several events this month to raise awareness and funds for the battle against breast cancer; the nationally televised game with the Los Angeles Sparks’ hosting the Chicago Sky will feature special programming on the league’s initiative.  (My second sports item.)

7. Since it is August, and I am about to embark on a vacation with visits to more than one national park, and Britt Bravo’s Have Fun Do Good blog provided the link, here’s a list of “The Top Ten Best National Parks You Don’t Know About” from the Green section of the Huffington Post.

Monday’s LA Times featured a story on page one about a child, profoundly deaf, who received a cochlear implant, which has introduced him to “the world of those who speak and hear.”  If you are unfamiliar with cochlear implants – which have revolutionized the outlook and possibilities for people born without hearing – by all means check out the article.  The surgery was performed at UCLA on October 22, 2008.  The article features John Tracy Clinic, which has a unique mission and role – serving families of preschool children who are deaf – among nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles.  Anne Cusak of the Times created an audio slideshow that accompanies the story.

Illustration courtesy of Advanced Bionics.