EdWeek

As the U.S. Department of Education prepares final rules for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund, officials face strong concerns from school districts and philanthropies that requiring matching funds from the private sector is unworkable and would turn foundations into the gatekeepers for the federal grants. The influential Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the biggest education philanthropy of them all, was among the critics. Such a match “is unworkable in its demands of the philanthropic organizations: It makes philanthropies de facto gatekeepers for applicants by requiring the match at the time of application; it privileges those organizations that already have relationships with large foundations,” wrote Allan Golston, the president of the Seattle-based foundation’s United States Program.

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