America’s K-12 education system is broken. A number of foundations and leading philanthropists are committed to addressing its imbalances and deficits. Some foundations, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, devote significant resources to increasing the number of students who graduate from high school with the skills needed to succeed in college and in their careers. The late great economist Milton Friedman believed that America’s broken educational system lies at the heart of our nation’s troubles, and directed his foundation to tackle education reform.
The Koret Foundation has implemented what we believe to be a superior strategy leading to an education reform program with impact. Specifically, we envisioned, funded, and continue to support the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education at the Hoover Institution, a results-oriented group of education leaders and scholars from a variety of disciplines; we provide the resources to conduct thorough and original research and analysis; we facilitate their opportunity to meet and discuss their work together; and we follow many of the recommendations that they ultimately develop.
The Koret Task Force is a Who’s Who in the education arena. Based on its assessment that transparency, accountability, and choice are critical common factors in successful school systems, Koret funds charter schools that focus on measurable achievement, encouraging development and dissemination of replicable models. Grants that support school choice and programs that recruit, train, and prepare excellent teachers have also been shown to improve academic outcomes.
The fix for broken schools is not simple. It requires instilling a strong accountability system, strengthening the incentives to improve student and teacher outcomes, and making the operations of schools adequately transparent so that all interested parties can readily understand individual school performance. If we remove the obstacles that keep our schools from succeeding, our young people and our country are sure to benefit significantly.
Tad Taube, President
Koret Foundation