Philanthropy Booms Summary

In David Callahan’s article titles, As Government Retrenches, Philanthropy Booms, the idea of philanthropists having too much power is discussed. Callahan talks about struggles that the state of Michigan has had in the past and how the assistance of philanthropy has helped in tackling issues that the government would not. Philanthropists use their funds in order to change things in society, some examples that are given are funding charter schools and aerial surveillance cameras in Baltimore. While it is good for philanthropy to be influential in creating and funding things like this, the author states that this also gives the philanthropists too much power due to their nimbleness, or ability to fund whatever they want. Some rules that Callahan thought could be created in order to prevent total power by philanthropy include more transparency in reporting charitable gifts, and stricter limits on tax-deductible …show more content…
The Gates Foundation focuses heavily on education and creating small schools, but when the creation of small schools failed, the Foundation admitted that they were wrong in their assumptions of smaller schools producing better students. The Gates Foundation also provides a lot of money in order to support charter schools for low-income students. One negative to the philanthropists influencing education so much was that of changing the curriculum of the schools. The authors state that “Philanthropists are not generally education experts, and even if they hire scholars and experts, public officials shouldn’t be allowing them to set the policy agenda for the nation’s public schools”. This is something I heavily agree with. There is nothing wrong with philanthropists funding schools and education, as education is incredibly important, but they should not have the power to change what is learned simply because they fund the public or even private