Policy Patrons: Philanthropy, Education Reform, and the Politics of Influence (Educational Innovations Series) - Softcover

Policy Patrons offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of decision making inside four influential education philanthropies: the Ford Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Through a series of confidential interviews, Megan E. Tompkins-Stange explores the values, ideas, and beliefs that inform these foundations’ strategies and practices. The outcome is an intriguing, thought-provoking look at the impact of current philanthropic efforts on education policy.
 
“Policy Patrons takes us deep inside traditional and venture philanthropies to learn, in the unfiltered words of decision makers, about profound shifts affecting public education and the practice of democracy. Tompkins-Stange has delivered an eye-opening portrait of this fast-changing field.”
—Dale Russakoff, author of The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?
 
“Through extensive and candid interviews with grant makers, Tompkins-Stange examines how several large foundations try to change education policy in the United States. Philanthropists rightly earn our admiration, yet they also deserve our critical attention. Policy Patrons delivers on both counts.”
—Rob Reich, professor, political science, and codirector, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Stanford University
 
“Policy Patrons is excellent reading for philanthropic leaders and concerned citizens alike. Critical and richly informed, this book will help readers make up their own minds about the balance of danger and opportunity posed when multibillionaires devote themselves to education reform.”
—Michael McPherson, president, Spencer Foundation
 
“Megan Tompkins-Stange provides a brilliant and insightful account of philanthropic influence in education policy. Policy Patrons is an invaluable contribution to ongoing debates about the role of philanthropy in a democratic society.”
—Sarah Reckhow, assistant professor, political science, Michigan State University
 
“Policy Patrons delivers the gospel truth about how foundations differ in goals, partner preferences, and decision styles.”
—Joel L. Fleishman, director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
 
Megan E. Tompkins-Stange is an assistant professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Robert B. Schwartz is a senior research fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
 
Policy Patrons is a volume in the Educational Innovations series.