Matt Damon Helps Celebrate Boston Premiere of "Backpack Full of Cash"

Last week saw the Boston premiere of the new documentary film Backpack Full of Cash, sponsored by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Citizens for Public Schools, and the Schott Foundation. The film's narrator, Matt Damon, joined a discussion panel afterward to elaborate on the issues raised in the documentary.

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Schott VP Edgar Villanueva Appointed to Andrus Family Fund Board

Schott Vice President for Programs and Advocacy Edgar Villanueva was recently appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for the Andrus Family Fund.

“Being the only Native American in the nation on a private board is a big deal for my community. I think this change will have a ripple effect on other foundations to really be democratic and inclusive, so I am proud to be part of a board that is an example of what a board should be.” – Edgar Villanueva
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The Center for Policing Equity Partners with the Schott Foundation to Help End the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Florida

Schott is partnering with the Center for Policing Equity to support an initiative that will collect and analyze data to address school discipline practices in Florida’s Broward County Public Schools.

“Fairness in policing begins on day one. That’s what makes our work with Broward County so important,” said Center for Policing Equity’s President and Co-Founder Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff.
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The Crisis of Criminalization: A Call for a Comprehensive Philanthropic Response

A groundbreaking new report released by the Barnard Center for Research on Women calls for an immediate philanthropic response to the growing crisis of criminalization, and outlines strategies to more effectively tackle criminalization and mass incarceration, to stop the spread of surveillance and punishment, and to meet the challenges of the current political climate.
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Beware the Back-to-School Stories Celebrating Online Education

An eight-month investigation by Education Week found a Colorado cyber charter school with a 19 percent graduation rate; an Ohio cyber that inflated student attendance by nearly 500 percent; a Pennsylvania cyber founder who siphoned $8 million in public money (including $300,000 to buy himself an airplane); and a Hawaii cyber founder who hired her nephew as the athletic director—for a school with no sports teams.
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Hundreds of Advocates Tell Betsy DeVos: Don't Toss Civil Rights Regulations

Which federal regulations, rules, and guidance should U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos tweak, overhaul, or throw out the window? Nearly 15,000 people and organizations had ideas for the department on this question—and hundreds of them were worried that scrapping or rewriting federal regulations could mean a serious weakening of students' civil rights.
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Community-Led Grantmaking: Collective Wisdom for Social Change

How can funders make their grantmaking more transparent and inclusive while tackling the unequal power dynamic in philanthropy? With more and more conversations around equity taking place in the sector, community-led grantmaking has proven to be a powerful way to address inequity from within, and in the process, center community members who are most marginalized.
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