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Report

Public Private Partnerships: Partnering with Governments to Improve Education

October 2009

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New partnerships between philanthropists and school systems can leverage the core competencies of each to help spur essential innovations in American education.

The Strategy

Traditionally, governments and grant makers have often approached the same problems along separate, if parallel, tracks. In the current economic climate, both need to work together to make every dollar go as far as it can. Philanthropists should not give up their independence. But they should look for opportunities to leverage their skills and resources by entering into public private partnerships.

Grant makers have strengths that governments lack: they have risk capital to invest in innovation, they are more nimble and flexible in their funding efforts, and their private dollars are generally less constrained by bureaucracy and entrenched interests. At the same time, governments have reach, scale, and access that grant makers lack, and they are essential partners on many issues about which funders care deeply.

For philanthropists, finding the right partners within government is essential. Ideal partners have embraced innovation, have a thoughtful and strategic approach to their work, have strong leadership and are open to working with private funders who want to play a meaningful role addressing the issues they care about – including the problems in public education.

The Problem

Despite years of interest and investment, America’s public schools continue to fail many of the nation’s neediest students. Over the last four decades, per pupil spending has quadrupled. Still, more than 1.2 million students drop out each year, and millions more leave school without mastering the skills they need to succeed.

Identifying ways to serve those students more effectively is difficult and contentious, and public schools lack flexibility in how they can spend their public dollars. Taxpayers want to know where their money is going, and school officials are also beholden to parents, teachers and other employees, not to mention existing regulations and other formal limitations.

As a result, schools often struggle to evaluate existing programs and make needed changes. They have difficulty allocating funds for innovation, and they have trouble replicating innovative programs that have been tested elsewhere. Some may even struggle to spend federal funds: the economic stimulus package includes billions of dollars for public education, but some school systems may have trouble effectively managing the influx of money, and all will need to prepare for commitments that must continue after the stimulus funds run out.

The Opportunity

  • Provide risk capital for innovation. Partner with your state or local school district to fund pilot programs or to help it replicate innovative programs that have already been piloted elsewhere. Or, partner with other philanthropists and nonprofits who already work closely with school systems to develop and evaluate programs.
  • Cover gaps and shortfalls. Your school district may need help, right now, with any number of projects that align with your philanthropic goals. You can work directly with state and local education leaders to identify such needs, including finding creative ways to reward effective teachers, collecting and analyzing complex longitudinal data that school systems need to improve, and funding advocacy programs that raise awareness about needs and opportunities.
  • Capitalize on stimulus funds. The stimulus package contains roughly $100 billion in education spending, a historic investment equal to about 16 percent of the nation’s annual expenditures on public elementary and secondary schools. Donors should work with governments to proactively steer their funds toward developing high-performing schools for the future rather than simply pouring more resources into the current systems.

Additional Resources