ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dramatic recent shifts in educational philanthropy of the last decade represented by the entry into educational policy and reform of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other ‘venture philanthropists’ in education. It explains the change in the underlying assumptions behind the recent shift as part of broader ideological and economic trends. Most signifi cant, the discussion elaborates on venture philanthropy as an expression of neoliberal ideology applied to education and the shift in the logic of educational philanthropy accompanying the shift from an industrial economy to one that is service oriented. The chapter begins by discussing the rise of venture philanthropy (VP) typifi ed by Gates and goes on to distinguish it from the prior philanthropy typifi ed by Carnegie and dominant in education for the past century. What is at stake in this discussion are the ways that public governance over public schooling is shifted to private concerns through VP, the ways the public fi nancially subsidizes privatization of public governance in education, and the broader political and civic purposes of public schooling in a democratic society.
