ABSTRACT
Giant foundations and corporate mega-funds, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli Broad Foundation, now supply to new educational trends and organizations more than money. eir backing lends a measure of clout, political credibility, and favorable media attention. As the largest foundations control even larger concentrations of private wealth, their power over public institutions grows larger. For example, the Broad Foundation now trains superintendents and district CEOs in the Broad model of leadership and then uses its economic and political clout to inject them at the top of dozens of schools systems, both urban and suburban. As CUNY professor and small-schools activist Michelle Fine told us, “Broad gives large cash awards to several urban school districts and then pressures the runner-ups to accept Broadtrained executives from Wal-Mart or other companies, as their new CEOs.”1
