(2003-09-22) Gates School Money

The Gates Foundation [is giving](http://gatesfoundation.org/Education/SmallHigh Schools/Announcements/Announce-030917.htm) $51M to NYC to create small High School-s for Educating Kids In Nyc.

A New Rules article from 2000 covers the Small Schools (Shopfront Schools) movement.

A 1998 report from Comptroller Alan Hevesi said the NYC Board Of Education is spending $100M/year on maintenance, but should be spending more like $1B.

A 2002 Usa Today article discusses why many corporations are cutting back on donations to Public Schools because it doesn't seem to do any good. The idea was to use corporate money to figure out what would work at test schools in rural and urban districts, and then inject tax money to implement it more broadly. Businesses came upon the challenge with enthusiasm. A decade later there is broad disappointment, says Richard Sharp, who retired as chairman of Circuit City two years ago. Sharp is among a growing contingent of executives who say corporate and foundation money should be pulled from education and redirected at implementing School Vouchers and other forms of competition. "There are an enormous number of talented and dedicated people in the public school system, but the system itself is broken," Sharp says. Those opposing competition are protecting the system, he says. "It's about the children, not the system."