Giving Compass' Take:

• Ruth McCambridge reports that The Gates Foundation is facing criticism for their push for the Common Core on the grounds that it is undemocratic. 

• How can major donor avoid undermining democracy through their philanthropy? 

• Learn more about the need for democracy to replace elite philanthropy. 

The New York Board of Regents should turn down a $225,000 Gates Foundation grant because it is a conflict of interest, writes Nicholas Tampio, a Fordham University political scientist and education policy critic. The grant in question would support a “targeted communication” campaign aimed at promoting a “common understanding” about “learning standards, accountability indicators, and other Department policies.”

He writes that the Gates Foundation “has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the writing, promotion, and implementation of the Common Core standards.”

Tampio likens the situation to the heavy pre-selling of an expensive movie, in that “advertising can inflate opening day ticket sales, but then a movie sinks or swims based on word-of-mouth. The Common Core standards are a bomb, and no amount of advertising can make people enthusiastic about them.

Tampio also accuses the foundation of trying to control the narrative with public relations grants.

Read the full article about Common Core by Ruth McCambridge at Nonprofit Quarterly.