Educational Philanthrocapitalists: Threats to Faculty, Students, and Democracy

Abstract

In this virtual presentation, Debbie Klein discusses the impact philanthrocapitalist foundations have had on California Community Colleges over the past 20 years. Philanthrocapitalist-funded nonprofits have claimed to promote equity but have implemented policies that apply corporate efficiency models to public education, resulting in a disconnect between their goals and the outcomes of their policies. As a result, their policies have created more barriers to enrollment and success, leading to a loss of over one million students in the system over a decade. Philanthrocapitalists and the nonprofits they fund have intentionally shrunk and defunded the California Community Colleges over the past two decades.

This presentation argues for the need to build a campaign to reclaim and reinvent life-affirming education for the largest and most diverse student body in higher education in the United States.

Full text

Educational Philanthrocapitalists:
Threats to
Faculty, Students, and Democracy
Debbie Klein, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology, Gavilan College
Past President, FACCC
&
Wendy Brill-Wynkoop
Professor of Photography, College of the Canyons
President, FACCC
FACCC Webinar | May 3, 2023

Philanthrocapitalism is the philanthropy practiced by corporations through
foundations they create or support.
“The rapid growth of profits in the IT and finance sectors during the 1990s and
2000s brought forth the new gilded age of philanthropy, with its own buzzword,
philanthrocapitalism. These capitalists believed that business methods are better
able to solve social problems than the methods used in the public sector…This
new group includes people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg,
George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, the Koch brothers, and others (representing
both conservative and liberal ideologies that can live within capitalism).”
- Gus Bagakis | “Faith in Charity is Hopeless: Philanthrocapitalism Has Failed Us”
2
Terminology: Philanthrocapitalism

Nonprofit Special Interest Groups
Corporations change educational policy and to divert public funds and privatize education
Corporation
Nonprofit Special
Interest
Organization
“Research”
leads to
report Sponsor
Legislation
Lobbyists -
Donations to
Political
campaigns
Policy mandates
add more pressure
to a already
underfunded
system
Repeat!
Funded research focuses on illustrating what the CCCs can do better and
proposes over-simplified solutions that often have an inequitable effect.
3

Why Now? Core Beliefs & Analyses
➔We’re in a battle with the academic industrial complex* for the soul of
public education.
➔Education is a human right.
➔Learning is a path to liberation. Education is freedom.
➔The corporate agenda of privatization, anti-labor, austerity &
defunding the public good is shutting out students.
➔Defunding the largest & most diverse system of higher education in
the nation is systemic racism & classism.
➔Building a campaign could reclaim & reinvent life-affirming education
& combat austerity measures.
* Profit-driven relationship between public institutions, private companies & philanthrocapitalist organizations. The AIC transforms
students into customers, administrators into CEOs, campuses into markets & colleges into degree factories. 4

* Institute for Democracy & Higher Education, 2022
Threat to Democracy:
Erosion of the California Community Colleges
5
“An attack on public
education is an attack
on democracy.”
-Diane Ravitch

Historical Context: From Master Plan to “Reform”
●1960 |Master Plan for Higher Education in CA
○Free high quality higher education for all is human right
○CCC suffers from the lowest per-student funding but serves largest
population with highest need
●1970s | Neoliberalism, disinvesting from public good
○ 1978: Prop 13 restricted property tax increases
●1980s |Reaganism, deregulation, privatization, anti-unionism, “reform”
movement origin
○ 1988: Prop 98 & AB 1725 (Vasconcellos)
●2012 & 2016 |Millionaires taxes helped but not enough
●2020s | FACCC, faculty unions, ASCCC & SSCCC joint advocacy
6

Shrinking of the California Community Colleges
* Data retrieved from California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Datamart and Census.gov (3/6/23)
35% decrease in students (~ 997,565)
since 2008
6.4% increase in annual CA population
since 2008
7

Chronic & Systemic Funding Inequity
Why are the California Community
Colleges chronically underfunded given
the system’s mission to serve the largest
& most diverse student body in US
higher education?
8

Shrinking CCC Mission: Elimination of Remedial Instruction
Old CCC Mission
●Academic and vocational instruction
●Remedial instruction
●English as a second language
●Adult noncredit instruction & support
services
●Community services courses &
programs
●Lifelong learning
9
New CCC Mission
●Academic and vocational instruction
●Instruction & additional learning
supports to close learning gaps
●English as a second language
●Adult noncredit instruction & support
services
●Community services courses & program

●“Reform” is a misnomer
●“Reform” groups have intentionally disrupted &
derailed public education
●Corporate disruptors (Ravitch 2020)
○Demonize faculty
○Perpetuate a system that exploits part-
time faculty
○Aim to privatize public education
○Aim to lower taxes
○Aim to demolish education as a public
good
○Disrupt for sake of disrupting
10
Terminology: Disruption is not Reform

The national “reform” agenda pushed in all fifty states equates
“student success” with the rapid completion of transfer,
degrees, and certificates...The push for full-time attendance
squeezes out students who cannot go full-time, students who
are not necessarily headed toward the corporate workforce,
and those who need and want education for other reasons,
such as lifelong learners.
-Marcy Rein, Mickey Ellinger, Vicki Legion | Free City!
11
Terminology: National “Reform”

Corporatizing higher education is socially unjust and morally
unethical…Neoliberalism plays a major role in corporatizing higher
education. Neoliberalism is a form of global capitalism based on the
deregulation of free markets and the privatization of wealth…The basic
purpose of neoliberalism is to allow private interests to own and control
every aspect of the human, social and natural world. Things like food,
water, farmland, forests, health care, prisons, militaries, political
processes, mass media, and of course, education, are targets of neoliberal
control…While most colleges are still nonprofit institutions, their primary
function is to serve the neoliberal enterprise.
-Jason Del Gandio | “Neoliberalism and the Academic-Industrial Complex”
12
Terminology: Neoliberalism

“Reform” Takeover
●The education “reform” movement has
been defunding & shrinking the
California Community Colleges for
decades.
●The Chancellor’s Office, BOG & CA
legislators are heavily influenced by the
“reform” agenda.
●Example | New CCC Chancellor Sonya
Christian is currently vice chair of the
Campaign for College Opportunity’s
board, having served on their board since
2017. 13

Lumina & Gates Foundations
●Lumina Foundation for Education
○Founded in 2001
○Largest foundation focused on US higher education
○Entirely funded by Student Loan Marketing
Corporation, Sallie Mae
○Funded Student Success Task Force (2012) & ACCJC
●Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
○Largest private foundation in the world
○Chief architect of Common Core, K-12 standardized
testing & online modalities creating demand for
microsoft products
○ “Gates Effect”: echo chamber of like-minded
ideas among government & foundation worlds
14
“Pay less for college”
“All students deserve
equitable access to education”

Austerity: Dominant “Reformer” Ideology
❑Shrinking CCC mission from lifelong learning, basic skills, strong
workforce & transfer to narrow form of “get in, get out” transfer,
catering to 20% of students.
❑Shrinking enrollment: prioritizing first time, full-time students.
❑Shrinking educational & course options: education is for
developing human capital/workers not growing in knowledge,
critical thinking, character & civic engagement.
15

Policy Network Driving Education “Reform”
1 3 5
642
US Department of
Education (DOE)
Think Tanks,
Advocacy Organizations &
Professional Associations
Government Officials
(eg. Gov. Jerry Brown)
Philanthrocapitalist
Foundations
American Legislative
Exchange Council
(ALEC)
Republican & Democratic
Parties & Corporate Media
* See appendix 2 | Free City! 16

SB 1440 (Padilla)
Transfer Pathway
Reform
Associate Degree
for Transfer
ADTs
SB 440(Padilla)
Student Transfer
Achievement
Reform Act
Require ADTs and
Transfer Model
Curriculum
2010/2013
SB 1456
(Lowenthal)
Seymour-Campbell
Student Success
Act
Education Plans and
success metrics
2012
AB 705 (Irwin)
Matriculation:
assessment
Remedial
Education
Redesign
Vision for Success
Big Audacious
System Goals
Guided Pathways
2017
Budget Act
Student-Centered
Funding Formula
SCFF
Fully Online
College
Calbright
2018
AB 927 (Medina)
Baccalaureate
Degree Program
AB 928 (Berman)
Student Transfer
Reform
Intersegmental HE
Committee,
Common GE
pathway, & Auto
placement in ADTs
AB 1111 (Berman)
Common Course
Numbering
2021
Over a Decade of Policy “Reform” from Sacramento
Budget Act
Cradle-to-Career
Data System
2019
AB 1705 (Irwin)
Equitable Placement
Place and enroll the
majority of students
directly into
transfer level
English and math.
2022
17

“Reform”-Influenced Philanthropist Organizations
1971 2001-2 2005 2006 2009 2010
18

Philanthrocapitalist Foundations: Decoding Their Missions
Prepare people for
informed
citizenship &
success in a global
economy
All lives have equal
value, impatient
optimists working
to reduce inequity
A California where
all low-income
workers have the
power to advance
economically
Lower student loan
default rates,
sponsor college
access & success
initiatives
19

Philanthrocapitalist Foundations: Decoding Their Missions
GRANTEE:
Benefits, supports &
enhances the missions
of the California
Community Colleges
More graduates
for a thriving
California
Expanding
opportunities in
America’s cities
Turn schools into
places that empower
& equip every student
for a lifetime of
learning, expand
access to OER
20

Philanthrocapitalists Co-Created CCC Vision
❑Amy Supinger
“higher education
policy wonk” (Twitter)
❑2011–present
Student success consultant for the
Foundation
❑2012-18
CA state policy consultant for
Lumina & ED of Student Success
Task Force
❑2017
Co-author & project manager of
Vision for Success
California Community Colleges Vision for Success
21

“Reformer” Dominance
▪9 philanthropist organization
boards: 98 members
▪ CCC practitioners: 15%
▪Non-CCC practitioners: 85%
▪85% of decision makers have no
direct experience in the CCCs
“Reformer” Ideology: “Get in, Get Out” to Cut Costs
Cloaked in the Language of Success & Equity
“Reformer” Hegemony
▪“Reformer” v. practitioner
ideologies of the public good
oppose each other
▪We need a counter-hegemonic
plan for reclaiming & reinventing
the California Community Colleges
22

Who gains from the shrinking of the CCCs?
➔Student loan industry
Push for full-time attendance drives students into debt
➔Education Technology
Long game is to eliminate need for faculty
➔Private and for-profit colleges and universities
For-profits cost up to x17 as much as CCCs
➔Anti-labor movement
Long game is to eliminate unions
➔Individuals who do not believe in investing in public education
23

Who loses from the shrinking of the CCCs?
The largest and most diverse student body in US higher education.
Our students become empowered to transform their lives &
participate in democracy when they are able to…
➔Access low-cost, high quality community college education.
➔Return to college to gain new skills, train for a new career, and
explore their passion.
➔Learn and interact with their community in an educational
environment.
➔Explore options as they embark on an educational path.
24

25
* CCCCO Report for Senate Budget Subcommittee 1 on Education Finance (April 20, 2023, p.3)
Who Are Our Community College Students?

26
* Statewide College Attendance Survey (2022, p. 9)
Top Reasons Affecting Students’ Decisions Whether to Attend

27
* Statewide College Attendance Survey (2022, p. 12)
Top Reasons Previously Enrolled Students Dropped Class(es)

~1,800,000 students
~ 52,628 faculty
~ 27,728 classified professionals
~ 2,289 administrators
CCC Student & Practitioner Coalition
Stronger Together!
* Data retrieved from California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Datamart (3/5/23) 28

Next Steps:
Research, Organize, Strategize, Build a Campaign
❏How do we frame our story?
❏What counter-narrative will win against the “reformer” narrative
of austerity?
❏What would equity look like if we decoupled it from the drive to
cut per-student costs?
❏What are some strategies to build back the California
Community Colleges?
❏How do we influence the state budget and legislation?
❏What else? 29

References
➔Cohen, Donald & Allen Mikaelian. (2021). The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods
Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back.
➔Eubanks, Virginia. (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor.
➔Isserles, Robin. (2021). The Costs of Completion: Student Success in Community College.
➔Kaufman-Osborn, Timothy. (2023). The Autocratic Academy: Reenvisioning Rule Within America’s Universities.
➔Klein, Debbie. (2021). “Resisting Decades of ‘Reform’ Movement Disruption in the California Community
Colleges.”
➔McGhee, Heather. (2021). The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together.
➔McGoey, Linsey. (2016). No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy.
➔Ravitch, Diane. (2020). Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s
Public Schools.
➔Rein, Marcy, Mickey Ellinger & Vicki Legion. (2021). Free City! The Fight for San Francisco’s City College and
Education for All.
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