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Trends in philanthropy
In an effort to help resolve serious racial and income-level disparities in the higher education opportunities available to American youth, a group of national education reform leaders joined by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and National Economics Advisor Gene Sperling have announced the launch of the Pathways to College Network, an alliance of major private and corporate foundations, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and the U.S. Department of Education. The Pathways network will work to improve access to higher education opportunities for underrepresented students from low-income families. According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 47 percent of low-income high school graduates immediately enroll in college or trade school, compared to 82 percent of high-income students, while only 18 percent of African-Americans and 19 percent of Hispanic high school graduates earn a bachelor’s degree by their late twenties (compared to 35 percent of white high school graduates). Start-up funding for the initiative totaling $2 million over the next
three years will be provided by six national foundations: the GE Fund, the
James Irvine Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Lucent Technologies
Foundation, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation. The U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education is also providing financial support.
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