Jeremy Nowak seems to be hitting his stride as the new president of the William Penn Foundation. As the former president of The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), he is used to providing funding for projects of value to the commercial and communal sector. I first learned of him and TRF when I was an undergraduate studying urban development and I thought it was a great thing - now I am concerned that Mr. Nowak is losing some of the community values he purported to have before.
This morning's article in the Philadelphia Inquirer is an example of the plans he is crafting that make me wary. It mentions the fact that the William Penn Foundation was responsible for paying the Boston Consulting Group to create a reorganization plan for the School District of Philadelphia and still has not released the information (although they say they will soon). The focus, however, is on new money being given to the Philadelphia School Partnership that is supposed to support public schools, charter schools, and private schools in the city.
This seems like a good goal but I am always concerned that the money will mostly go to organizations that have time to lobby for it, and not those spread so thin doing their job educating students that they cannot put a grant application together. While I do think it is enticing to have this amount of money offered, I hope its distribution is closely monitored in order to not be used as a political tool. The more I read about Nowak's plans in the school system the more I worry about politics getting in the way of educating our children.
This morning's article in the Philadelphia Inquirer is an example of the plans he is crafting that make me wary. It mentions the fact that the William Penn Foundation was responsible for paying the Boston Consulting Group to create a reorganization plan for the School District of Philadelphia and still has not released the information (although they say they will soon). The focus, however, is on new money being given to the Philadelphia School Partnership that is supposed to support public schools, charter schools, and private schools in the city.
This seems like a good goal but I am always concerned that the money will mostly go to organizations that have time to lobby for it, and not those spread so thin doing their job educating students that they cannot put a grant application together. While I do think it is enticing to have this amount of money offered, I hope its distribution is closely monitored in order to not be used as a political tool. The more I read about Nowak's plans in the school system the more I worry about politics getting in the way of educating our children.
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