By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – My mouth dropped as I read the story, and then I cheered. Finally. Large sums of private money going to help the pathetic Texas public school system. And it's coming from two of the wealthiest people in the country. I'm Maxine Shapiro with Marketplace Midday.
Not once was the voucher program mentioned. And not one analytical jargon was uttered comparing private and public schools. Instead, a focus on the solution. The state is announcing the Texas High School Project today. The mission of the program is to lower the high school dropout rate and to downsize larger public schools to make for a more personal effective teaching environment. I'm excited just talking about it!
And who's supporting this $130 million venture? Half will come from Bill Gates and Michael Dell and a few other charitable foundations. The other half will come from the state education budget. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will contribute $35 million, one of its largest single allocations. Who cares if it's just a drop in the bucket for this $25 billion foundation?! The Dell Foundation, in addition to earlier financial commitments to Austin schools, pledged $25 million to the Project. All private money will go towards making smaller schools out of overcrowded and highly populated public high schools. Dropout prevention classes, tutoring and after-school programs will be funded by the state's contribution.
Restructuring will not be an easy task. See, to receive some of this money, there's one little standard schools will have meet: enrollment for the new schools can't go over 400 students. Officials expect about 70 schools across Texas will be revamped.
And well-funded, high achieving suburban schools needn't apply. This project is geared to the low-income, minority populated schools.
So, can this ambitious project cut through the bureaucracy that plagues the school system? Oh, how I hope so. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
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