A foundation recently announced an effort to help improve public education across the nation.
The Foundation Center has launched the Foundations for Education Excellence with the goal of creating a partnership between educators and organizations that specialize in philanthropy. One of the major features of the campaign is a resource website that will help organizations tap into money made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
"There is a unique window of opportunity in the coming weeks and months for private philanthropy to leverage its investment in education," Bradford Smith, president of the center, said.
The resource website was developed with the help of a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is also playing a role in partnering with the foundation on the website.
The web portal, foundationcenter.org/educationexcellence, will offer organizations that fund education a number of tools. For example, it will keep track of the total funds available for education through the ARRA, and how much of that money has already been paid out to organizations.
The site will also present what are viewed as the best practices for education reform, and will include a comment section that will allow people to share their own experiences. Funding programs will also be posted, which will allow organizations to coordinate similar efforts.
A news section highlighting activities of the DOE will also be featured on the website, and will include guidelines, grant deadlines and high-profile announcements from the department.
Recently, the Obama administration announced $4.35 billion in grants to states that are willing to pursue educational reforms. States will be able to compete for the funds through the Race to the Top program, which has goals that include improving teacher retention and trying to up the performance of poorly-performing schools.