Mapping Billionaires and Charter Schools

[below] is interactive. Click around to explore relations in the map. The map shows billionaires at the center who have funded school choice efforts. (The map is better viewed in the large version. Here’s a simplified version, that can serve as a starting point.)Enter the name of a person or organization.

While much of the activism for charter schools occurs at the local and state levels, the money funding the movement is unquestionably national. A typical path for donations is for a wealthy individual, through his company or foundation, to give to a state-level organization that advocates for charter schools.

That organization may work for the election of pro-charter officials, or for passage of legislation promoting the ever-burgeoning charter school network.

Such was the case in Washington state last year, where an initiative to allow charter schools attracted contributions from across the country. Among the wealthiest backers were Microsoft billionaires Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Wal-Mart heir Alice Walton, Gap Inc. co-founder Doris Fisher and KB Home founder Eli Broad.

All gave money to the Washington Coalition for Public Charter Schools, which successfully campaigned for the initiative’s passage. All have supported similar activities around the nation.

The effort is being fought on so many fronts that it creates a tangled map, as exhibited above.

We encourage you to follow individual trails by using the many options in the tool box at the left of the map. You can remove or expand relationships, save maps, and embed them on your own web site or insert them in presentations such as PowerPoint.