6/27/2006

Will More Money Help Or Hurt The Gates School Reform Effort?

It's hard to find much fault with Warren Buffet's decision to gift his billions instead of passing them onto his kids, and it's understandable that he'd want to give the money to an established foundation rather than start or grow his own (Gates: Buffett gift may cure diseases). But the past five or six years have been tough ones for the Gates Foundation when it comes to school reform -- they rode in hard on the small schools horse, and are just now broadening their agenda (Vander Ark: "I Could Kick Myself").

I wonder -- as many others probably do -- how the new money is going to be divided between education and health. Whatever the division, I wonder whether an even bigger amount of money to give away every year will help the program folks at Gates, or pressurize their thinking in ways that won't help them think and act as wisely as possible.

UPDATE: The Times' DealBook asks much the same question, noting that under Buffett's terms Gates -- already at 300 staffers -- will have to double its grantmaking to $3 billion a year within two years.

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