“Philanthrocapitalism”, a term coined by The Economist writer, Matthew Bishop, describes the new movement and “effort by a new generation of entrepreneurial philanthropists by…promising to donate most of their vast wealth to fight poverty and disease among the poorest people on the planet and to improve America’s failing public school system” (Bishop, 2013). During an interview with Terry Gross, host NPR’s Fresh Air, Dale Russakoff talks about her most recent book, The Prize, which offers a example of a prominent actor within philathrocapitalism, Mark Zuckerburg. In 2010, Mark Zuckerburg, the cofounder, chair, and CEO of Facebook, donated $100 million to the city of Newark, New Jersey—to be matched by another $100 million—at the request of …show more content…
Similarly, Chris Christie made urban education a top priority during his gubernatorial campaign. Although they belonged to opposite political parties, Booker and Christie “both viewed urban school districts as beholden to public workers’ unions and political patronage machines rather than children, and both were part of a growing national movement to reinvent education” (Russakoff, 2015). Between the two, along with the rest Newark, there was no doubt that the district’s school system needed an overhaul. For example, unlike most public schools across the United States, Newark’s schools were removed from local control in 1995 and put under the jurisdiction of the state due to significant evidence of corruption and neglect. Additionally, “with seven thousand people on the payroll, the school district was the biggest public employer” (Kotlowitz). However, for generations, Newark public schools “had been a source of patronage jobs and sweetheart deals for the connected and the lucky,” and, consequently, in order to initiate any kind of reform, Booker and Christie knew they “would face a brutal battle with unions and machine politicians” (Kotlowitz). Therefore, in order to combat these problems, Booker proposed “Newark Public Schools—A Reform Plan,” which “called for imposing reform from the top down, warning that a more open political process could be taken captive by unions and machine politicians” (Russakoff, 2015). Booker’s plan also called “for an ‘infusion of philanthropic support’ to recruit teachers and principals through national school-reform organizations, build sophisticated data and accountability systems, and weaken tenure and seniority protections” (Russakoff, 2015). Once Governor Christie was on board, Booker began pitching their plan to major