Bill Daley gets big money from school privatizer Finnegan

Paul Finnegan

Bill Daley, who recently jumped into the Chicago mayor's race just received $200,000 from Paul Finnegan, co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners investment firm (net worth $1.8B). Through his Finnegan Family Foundation, he's been a major underwriter of Chicago's privately-run charter schools and school privatizers.

He's been one of the biggest donors to the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS). He sits on the board of Teach for America, Inc. and has given millions to KIPP, Noble and other Chicago charter school networks. He's also a big backer of the union-busting group, Stand For Children.

Madison Dearborn had been among Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s most reliable campaign contributors for years. Three executives, including Finnegan, dumped $705,000 into Emanuel’s campaign in June, three months before Emanuel chose political retirement over the uphill battle for a third term.

Finnegan's support for Daley could spell trouble for candidate Paul Vallas the other big charter supporter in the race.

After being fired by KIPP for sexual misconduct, Feinberg is back in business.

Mike Feinberg was fired from KIPP in February over allegations of sexual misconduct with a child. Somehow, it took 14 years for KIPP to discover that one of its co-founders had been sexually involved with former students.

But now Feinberg is back in the school privatization swing. After a quick rehab job, underwritten by the the Texas School Venture Fund (Feinberg's own creation) he has teamed up with veteran school voucher warrior Howard Fuller to start a new consulting group whose stated goal is, "helping educators create new schools and assisting single-site schools and existing networks of schools in opening new campuses." Feinberg says, he wants to work at least in part with KIPP alumni who want to start their own schools.

Feinberg is launching the new organization with Texas billionaire, a self-described "conservative communitarian," and long-time charter school supporter, Leo Linbeck III.

Howard Fuller

This will also be Fuller's attempt at a comeback since his right-wing patrons pulled their funding from his anti-union, pro-voucher group, Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO).

Feinberg was fired after being accused of sexually abusing a student in the late 1990s, but the allegation didn't surface until 2017, according to KIPP.

KIPP Houston Public Schools and an independent law firm hired by the network investigated the claims, and found "the allegation to have credibility". During the course of the investigation, the law firm, WilmerHale, turned up two other misconduct allegations against Feinberg by adult employees of KIPP Houston, both of whom were former students of the charter network. One reached a settlement, while the other allegation could not be corroborated, according to KIPP officials at the time.

Billionaire charter backers clash. Broad vs. DeVos

Billionaires DeVos vs. Broad

Power philanthropist Eli Broad is urging senators to vote against confirming fellow billionaire and right-wing school "choice" advocate, Betsy DeVos.

The growing grassroots resistance to Trump's choice for Ed Secretary has split the charter/voucher movement and its wealthy backers. Pro-choice groups and think tanks have been thrown into a dither with some like BAIO's Howard Fuller endorsing DeVos while others, distance themselves for fear of being associated with Trump and the Alt-Right.

According to EdWeek:

In comparison to DeVos' philanthropic work, the Broads belong to a class of donors that prefer a much more managed approach to school choice, investing in charter school models that can scale up and measure their performance. They are strong supporters of charter management organizations—nonprofit networks of charter schools (think KIPP)—whose rapid growth has been propelled by the federal government and a handful of wealthy donors. 

Eli and his wife Edythe Broad are among some of the most influential backers of charter schools nationwide. Their foundation has given over $150 million to charter schools nationally. Of that, $79 million has gone to charters in Los Angeles. He's also used his money to influence local school board elections in favor of pro-choice, anti-union candidates.

He's also a big Democratic Party campaign donor who personally bankrolled many of Arne Duncan's ed initiatives and currently is underwriting Education Post, the pro-charter, anti-teacher union project run by Duncan's former assistant, Peter Cunningham.

But Broad has no real problems with Trump or the Republicans. In 2013 he was exposed for secretly funding a right-wing, anti-union group connected with the Koch Bros. He formerly helped run the failed giant AIG Corp., once the world's biggest insurer, into the ground.

DeVos and her husband Richard on the other hand, are free-market evangelical conservatives who favor vouchers and for-profit charters as opposed to, what she calls, "government schools". Her appointment has far less to do with her competencies or lack thereof as a department head, but rather as an ideologue and an important piece of the Trump/Bannon move to take over and demolish the institutions of government, including the Dept. of Education.

Broad's letter to McConnell and Schumer urging them to dump DeVos, came on the same day as two Republican senators announced that they plan to vote against DeVos' confirmation. Both Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska hail from rural states. Both raised concerns over DeVos' hyper-focus on school choice and her overall knowledge of public schools.

Only one more Republican needs to break with the party to sink DeVos' nomination, but GOP leaders say they are confident DeVos will ultimately be confirmed as the next secretary of education.

We'll soon see if Broad has enough juice to swing one-more Republican vote away from DeVos. I doubt it.

Charles Schwab -- A core member of the 'charter cabal'

Brokerage firm founder Charles Schwab rode the emerging wave of online investing to amass client assets of over $2 trillion, and a net worth of $6 billion. He's now become one of the biggest patrons of corporate-style school reform, investing millions in privately-run charters schools like KIPP, Teach for America, The New Teacher Project, and Michelle Rhee's operation, Stand for Children. Schwab also helps bankroll right-wing ed think tanks like the Fordham Institute.    

From Inside Philanthropy...

We're not sure why charters and finance billionaires go together like peas and carrots, but we'll save the theorizing for another article. What's notable about Schwab is that he's deeper into this area than many of the more glitzy hedge fund donors who get so much attention.

A $1 million gift to the Charter School Growth Fund in 2011 stands out, not only because of the size of the gift but also because of its destination. Founded in 2005, the Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a bit like the mother ship of the charter school movement, working to grow and professionalize this alternative ed sector. A lot of the major players in the charter school funding world have given to CSGF, including Walton, Gates, Dell, Bradley, and Fisher. Schwab 's investment here is yet more evidence that it's a core member of the charter cabal. 

The wild expansion of privately-managed charters

NEWS RELEASE 

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY CENTER

For Immediate Release November 26, 2013

Contact:  Jamie Horwitz, 202-549-4921, jhdcpr@starpower.net

Private Education Management Organizations Running Public Schools Expand –

44 Percent of Charter School Students in 2011-12 Attended Schools Operated by EMOs

New report shows 908,000 students in 2011-2012 attended privately-managed schools in 35 states plus D.C. – a major increase from 733,000 enrolled a year earlier. Michigan (204 schools) Florida (177), Ohio (110) and Arizona (108) have the most privately-managed schools.

An increasing number of for-profit education management organizations are expanding into online teaching.

BOULDER, CO – Across the nation, schools managed by for-profit firms such as K12 Inc, National Heritage Academies and Charter Schools USA, as well as nonprofit education management organizations (EMOs) such as KIPP, continue to increase the number of students they enroll, despite a scarcity of evidence showing positive results. Students across 35 states and the District of Columbia now attend schools managed by these non-government entities. Oklahoma and Tennessee have added schools run by EMOs since the last edition of this report.

The report, Profiles of For-Profit and Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: Fourteenth Edition – 2011-2012, was released today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), which is housed at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“There is growth in number of schools and students served in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors, although growth among schools operated by nonprofit EMOs continues to outpace the for-profit sector. Growth has slowed for for-profits in brick-and-mortar school settings. The real growth in the for-profit sector is with companies that operate virtual schools,” said the report’s lead author Dr. Gary Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement and research at Western Michigan University. “The growth of virtual schools, which is fueled by millions in advertising dollars, is astounding because of the sketchy academic results reported by the schools that operate online.”

The report is the NEPC’s latest edition in its series of profiles of EMOs, companies that are contracted to manage charter schools and other public schools. The EMO sector emerged in the 1990s as part of an effort to use market forces and private entities to reform public education.

For-Profit Operators

Since the 1995-1996 school year, the number of for-profit EMOs has increased from 5 to 97, and the number of schools operating has increased from 6 to 840. Enrollment has grown from approximately 1,000 students in 1995-1996 to 462,926 in 2011-2012.

While the actual number of for-profit companies has grown very little over the past few years, many of the large and medium-sized EMOs are expanding into new service areas, such as supplemental education services and virtual schooling.

Imagine Schools was the largest for-profit EMO in 2011-2012 in terms of the number of schools it manages. The company managed 89 schools during the 2011-2012 school year, but it has lost a number of contracts since then. The next largest for-profit operators in

2011-2012, in terms of numbers of schools, are Academica (76) and National Heritage Academies (68).

However, in terms of enrolled students, the largest EMO is K12 Inc., which operates virtual schools. Because of the large enrollments in its schools, the total enrollment of K12 Inc.’s schools exceeded that of any other for-profit -- or nonprofit -- EMO, with 57 schools enrolling 87,091 students.

Nonprofit Operators

Nonprofit operators have shown more robust growth in brick-and-mortar school settings than for-profit operators, both in terms of new nonprofit EMOs and new managed

schools. A total of 201 nonprofit EMOs were identified and profiled in this year’s report, including 31 large nonprofit EMOs, 68 medium-sized and 102 small nonprofit EMOs.

The overall number of students in nonprofit EMO-managed schools has increased dramatically in recent years, from 237,591 in 2009-10 to 445,052 during the 2011-2012 school year. KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program -a national charter school network -- remained the largest nonprofit EMO, with 98 schools and just over 35,045 students in 2011-2012.

Virtual Schools

The number of virtual schools operated by EMOs increased from 60 in 2009-2010 to 91 in 2011-2012. This represents 10.8 percent of all schools managed by for-profit operators.

As noted, the largest for-profit operator is K-12 Inc., which operates full-time virtual schools. It should be noted that some of the largest for-profit EMOs are beginning to lose contracts with brick-and-mortar schools and are shifting attention into virtual education.   "Most virtual schools are charters, are full-time, and are statewide in their scope,” said the report’s coauthor, Charisse Gulosino of the University of Memphis. “As it stands, research, policy and practice have not kept pace with virtual schooling’s growth --reflecting the need for deliberation about its impact and implications for public K-12 education.”

Full Report is Available on the Web

Profiles of For-Profit and Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: Fourteenth Edition - 2011-2012 can be found on the web at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/EMO-profiles-11-12

The report is the nation’s most comprehensive examination of the private entities that operate public schools.

The great TFA/charter scam -- Drive-by Teachers

A TFAer in Birmingham, AL.

Today's NYT carries a piece,  "At Charter Schools, Short Careers by Choice" by Mokoto Rich. The notion that young, inexperienced short-timers, many with only 5 weeks of TFA training, should form the backbone of the nation's teaching core, has become one of the lynch pins of corporate-style school reform.

The drive-by teacher strategy is being pushed heavily by the power philanthropists in the Gates, Broad, and Walton Foundations. It actually is based on the Wal-Mart model where about 70% of its poorly-paid workforce turns over within a year. This is what the reformers mean by 21st Century jobs.

At Success Academy Charter Schools, a chain run by Eva Moskowitz, a former New York City councilwoman, the average is about four years in the classroom. KIPP, one of the country’s best known and largest charter operators, with 141 schools in 20 states, also keeps teachers in classrooms for an average of about four years. 

Short careers by choice, translates into teachers being reduced to low-wage information-age delivery clerks while most "learning" is done by students sitting in front of a computer screen. The benefits to the charter operators include the elimination of pensions, tenure, salary increases, and union protection. This means more money going into the pockets of the charter operators. Moskowitz for example, pulls down about $400,000/yr.

Rich says the notion of a foreshortened teaching career was largely introduced by Teach for America, which places high-achieving college graduates into low-income schools for two years. Today, Teach for America places about a third of its recruits in charter schools.

“Strong schools can withstand the turnover of their teachers,” said Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America. “The strongest schools develop their teachers tremendously so they become great in the classroom even in their first and second years.”

But studies have shown that on average, teacher turnover diminishes student achievement, writes Rich. Advocates who argue that teaching should become more like medicine or law say that while programs like Teach for America fill a need in the short term, educational leaders should be focused on improving training and working environments so that teachers will invest in long careers.

Reformers claim that this is all a generational thing where today's young teachers are "restless" and don't like to stay in one job too long. One young teacher, "who is already thinking beyond the classroom",  is quoted, saying, “I feel like our generation is always moving onto the next thing, and always moving onto something bigger and better.”

I wonder, especially, with a shrinking job market and devastated middle class, what a real teacher would feel is "bigger and better" than teaching children?

What's so "special" about KIPP?

Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post - Trinity President Patricia McGuire, left, and communications student Yasmeen Newman, 20. Newman attended the KIPP D.C. Key middle school and then the private McLean School in Potomac.

Valerie Strauss at the Answer Sheet, describes the special status KIPP charters have with several elite colleges and universities who have recently signed "pledges" to track and recruit KIPP grads.

According to the story, 20 colleges and universities, including Georgetown, Brown and Duke universities, have signed pledges to work with KIPP to recruit some of the charter network’s students, 95 percent of whom are black and Latino. KIPP’s Web site says KIPP now has 125 schools in 20 states and Washington D.C., with a total of more than 39,000 students, with more than 85 percent of them from low-income families.

 Wow! That is special, at least for those students KIPP usually doesn't enroll, like those with disabilities or special-needs, English-language learners and for those whose test scores make them unlikely survive KIPP's high attrition rate. KIPP has forged a "national brand", writes WaPo ed writer, Nick Anderson,  by offering longer school days and years and a credo advocates sum up as “work hard, be nice.” The network says it takes “no shortcuts” in pursuing academic goals and makes “no excuses” for failure. They also receive hundred of millions of dollars in private funding.

I wish every high school would at least make the effort or have the resources to connect its graduating students with some type of post-secondary ed opportunities. I also wish most large urban high schools had manageable student/counselor rations, ie. below 1:400, so that inner-city students could  learn about possibilities beyond high school or even how and when to apply and connect with funding and decent loan opportunities.  More importantly, I wish that the cost of a university education was even close to being affordable for most working class and middle-class families.

But obviously, such a wish list for public education is of no concern to KIPP. After all, writes Strauss,

Over at Brown University, according to this story in the Providence Journal, the KIPP scholarships were endowed with $2.5 million from Martha and Bruce Karsh, the parents of a Brown student. Incidentally, Martha Karsh is founder of the Karsh Family Foundation and happens to be on the board of directors of KIPP... KIPP’s Board of Directors includes corporate executives, such as Philippe Dauman, president and CEO of Viacom, Inc; Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, Inc.; and Mark Nunnelly, Bain Capital’s managing director. Meanwhile, KIPP L.A.’s Board of Directors includes Marc Castellani, executive director of JP Morgan Private Bank, and KIPP D.C.’s Board of Directors includes Don Graham, CEO of The Washington Post Company. 

Calling KIPP charters, "public schools" is at best, a stretch. More like an absurdity.

Look who paid KIPP's way to New Zeeland

Hedge-funder, Julian Robertson

Look who paid KIPP founder, Mike Feinberg’s way to NZ where he got a cool reception. None other than conservative hedge-funder Julian Robertson. Robertson's Aotearoa Foundation, is the local arm of the right wing USA-based Robertson Foundation. It was hedge-fund king Robertson who founded the now-defunct Tiger Management Fund which was mired in scandal over the collapse of U.S. Airways.

Robertson recently gave $1.25 million to  Restore Our Future, a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney campaign. In fact, Robertson wanted Romney to run his hedge fund. But Romney has enough sense not to get involved in such a crooked organization and ran Bain Capital instead.

"I'm fortunate to be a one-percenter", said Robertson. "I put it up there as probably, if it works, as the best money I've spent -- better than for cancer or education or all these things -- because I think a President of the United States, an effective president, the leverage he has to do good is just enormous." -- Business Insider

Diane Ravitch points out in response to my blog comment, " And owns some charters too, like the one crammed into PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, over opposition from parents and teachers and community."

Speaking of KIPP, an arrogant Jonathan Alter  on Melissa -Harris-Perry's show last week, snorted at Texan Univ.Prof. Julian Vasquez Heilig, "I won't let you diss KIPP!" H-P responded angrily, "Yes you will. This is my show...at 5:10 on the video.

Alter yells at Texas prof, "I won't let you diss KIPP!" 

Vasquez-Heilig, rather than "dissing" KIPP, was simply revealing data on the disproportional high dropout (pushout) rate among African-American KIPP students in Texas. I think the "let you" part of Alter's screed is most revealing of the white, male entitlement syndrome which typifies the corporate school reformers.

You might remember, it was faux-journalist Alter who equated teacher unions with the Tea Party and who was Arne Duncan's spear-carrier in the personal media assault campaign on Ravitch.

"The creep of the marketplace"

Larry Cuban was superintendent in Arlington schools for seven years, a former high school social studies teacher for 14 years and professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. Here his take on changes in market influences since his days in VA schools.

My experiences in Arlington with businesses, while revealing tensions and occasional conflict, have been bland compared to current back-and-forth criticism among policymakers and practitioners about “corporate reformers” and “privatization of public schools.” What is more disturbing, however, as I look back at my experiences as a teacher, administrator, and professor, is the gradual creep of marketplace values into schooling that go far deeper than charter schools, Teach for America, KIPP, and use of student test scores as the bottom line of schooling. --  Read Cuban's entire post on Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet.

Romney and Bain Capital knee-deep in corporate-style reform.

Romney with Wm. Bain, Jr.

One of the few good things that came out of last night's Republican debate was the further exposure of Mitt Romney as founder of the notorious Bain Capital investment firm. In his 2010 book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy, Josh Kosman described Bain Capital as "notorious for its failure to plow profits back into its businesses."

But what wasn't mentioned was Bain's connection to the world of corporate-style school reform and privately-managed charter schools -- namely KIPP.  Among those I listed in my post, on the corporate muscle behind KIPP, back in April, was Bain's managing director, Mark Nunnely. 

Nunnely is director of the KIPP Foundation. He also directs New Profit, Inc, a group of "social entrepreneurs" dominated by Bain execs like Josh Blankenstein and Paul Edgerley. 

According to Forbes, 

New Profit investors get scorecards on all organizations once every quarter. They're usually familiar with them already but, at a glance, they can tell if their money is being put to good use. Poor performers are washed out by well-run operations. 

New Profit also operates the Pathways Fund. These two groups are part of a larger network of "investors" who provide millions in funding to private operators of charter schools as well as to Michelle Rhee's Children First, Stand for Children, Teach For America and other corporate "school reformers."

Vanessa Kirsch is the founder and president of New Profit and Romney served on the board of City Year, a nonprofit co-founded by Kirsch's husband.

The firm Romney once ran, Bain Capital, has deep ties to City Year and the new America Forward coalition. "Our business is backing strong management teams with creative solutions to hard problems," explained Mark Nunnelly, managing director of Bain Capital. "I think a lot of us like the idea that you can take this same approach and apply it to not-for-profits." -- AP Wire, December 10, 2007

Keeping track of Walton $$$

The right-wing, anti-union Walton Family Foundation invested $157,220,283 in corporate-style school reform this past year. The biggest beneficiary was Teach For America, raking in more than $16 million. KIPP got $8.6 million.

Some of the corporate muscle behind KIPP

The Gap, Viacom, Bain Capital, Netflix, Walton...

John Fisher, Chairman

President, Pisces, Inc.
Mr. Fisher is President of Pisces Inc., an investment management company for the Fisher family. He is also a partner of Sansome Partners, the private investment partnership of the Fisher family. He sits on the board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco, San Francisco Day School and the Alliance for School Choice.
Mr. Fisher is a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He and his wife live in San Francisco with their four children.

Philippe Dauman

President and CEO, Viacom, Inc.
Mr. Dauman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom and has served on the Company's Board of Directors since 1987. Viacom is the world's leading entertainment content company and it engages audiences on television, motion picture and digital platforms through many of the world's best known entertainment brands, including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, BET and Paramount Pictures. Under Mr. Dauman's leadership, in 2009 Viacom partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the "Get Schooled" initiative, which aims to increase high school and college graduation rates, improve postsecondary readiness and promote the fundamental importance of education.

Mr. Dauman earned his bachelor's degree from Yale College and his law degree from Columbia University Law School. He is a director of National Amusements, Inc. and Lafarge S.A. He is also a member of the Business Roundtable and serves on the Executive Committee of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the Board of Trustees for The Paley Center for Media and the Dean's Council of Columbia University Law School.

Doris Fisher

Founder, Gap Inc.
Mrs. Fisher, co-founder of Gap Inc., is an exceptional volunteer and philanthropist whose generosity has positively impacted such fields as education, the arts and health care. A graduate of Stanford University, Mrs. Fisher's volunteer work there began in 1969, the year she and husband, Don, opened the first Gap store in San Francisco.

Over the years, Mrs. Fisher has offered exemplary services to the Graduate School of Business Advisory Board, the Stanford Art Museum Advisory Board, the School of Medicine, the Cantor Arts Center, the Stanford Alumni Association, the Office of Development, and the Board of Trustees. In addition, she has served on the Princeton Art Museum Advisory Board, the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors and the Northern California Cancer Center Board since 1983.

Reed Hastings

Founder and CEO, Netflix, Inc.
Mr. Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 and launched the subscription service in 1999. In 2005, Time magazine added Mr. Hastings to its "Time 100" list of the one hundred most influential global citizens. Earlier in his career, he founded Pure Software, which he built into one of the world's 50 largest public software companies.

Mr. Hastings was President of the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004. He has led successful statewide political campaigns for more charter public schools and easier passage of local school bonds. He received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983 and an MSCS degree from Stanford University in 1988. 

Mark Nunnelly

Managing Director, Bain Capital
Mr. Nunnelly is Managing Director of Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm based in Boston. In 1989, Mr. Nunnelly helped found Information Partners, a venture and technology fund backed by Bain Capital that focused on early stage investing. Currently, Mr. Nunnelly sits on the Boards of Domino's Pizza, Warner Music Group, Eschelon Telecom, and Houghton Mifflin Company.
Mr. Nunnelly is an active supporter of several charitable organizations, serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Jumpstart. He has also been actively involved with City Year since its inception. Mr. Nunnelly received his MBA, with Distinction, from Harvard Business School, and an A.B. from Centre College, where he is a Trustee.

Carrie Walton Penner

Trustee, Walton Family Foundation
Carrie Walton Penner is an education reform advocate who is committed to dramatically improving K–12 student achievement in the United States, especially in low-income communities. Along with the other Walton family members, she guides the Walton Family Foundation’s education reform strategies and investments. The Foundation believes that the best way to achieve continuous and sustainable improvements in K–12 schools is to create competition among schools by empowering parents to choose among them.


Ms. Penner serves as a board member of several organizations including the California Charter School Association, EdVoice, the Alliance for School Choice, and the California Academy of Sciences. She earned a B.A. in economics and history from Georgetown University and master’s degrees from Stanford University in education policy and program evaluation. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband, Greg Penner, and their four children.

Shawn Hurwitz, Founding Board Member, Emeritus

President and CEO, MAXXAM Property Company
Mr. Hurwitz is President and CEO of MAXXAM Property Company, a real estate development company focused on community development and related real estate investment.  As President and CEO, Mr. Hurwitz is responsible for the supervision and implementation of all real estate activities, including development, acquisition, disposition, investment, sales and marketing, and operating activities.

Mr. Hurwitz served as a founding board member of KIPP Foundation from 2000 to 2009. He also served as Chairman of the Board of KIPP Houston’s schools from 1998 - 2006, thus playing an active leadership role in the creation of KIPP’s first region in Houston as well as the national replication.

Don Fisher, Founding Board Chair, Emeritus 

September 3, 1928 – September 27, 2009

Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Gap Inc., Co-Founder KIPP Foundation
Mr. Fisher was the founder and chairman emeritus of Gap Inc. He served on the board of trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, was a director of the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco and a governor of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Mr. Fisher was also on the California State Board of Education and was a director on the board of EdVoice and Teach For America.

Mr. Fisher was the director of the National Retail Federation and received the Retailer of the Year award in 1996. He was also actively involved in the California Business Roundtable and the Committee on Jobs Executive Committee. Other honors include the California Arts Council Governor’s Award for Individual Patrons of the Arts and selection to the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame and American Academy of Achievement.

In 2000, Don Fisher Co-Founded the KIPP Foundation and served as Chairman of the Board until 2009.