Florida

Putting Education Reform To The Test

Who’s Been Giving To Jeb Bush’s Education Group?

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told business leaders gathered in Michigan that education can pull kids out of poverty.

National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA)/flickr

The education foundation started by former Gov. Jeb Bush has released a list of donors.

This week, the education advocacy group started by former Gov. Jeb Bush released a detailed list of donors for the first time. The Foundation for Excellence in Education posted the list on its website.

The Foundation for Excellence in Education conducts research and advocates for states to adopt education policies, including expanding school choice, measuring student, teacher and school progress and adopting the Common Core math and language arts standards. The group has raised $46 million since 2007.

The donor list does not reveal exact amounts, but lists each gift within a range — such as from $10,000 to $25,000. Gifts of more than $1 million did not have an upper range. More than 180 donors have given to the group.

Foundations were the biggest givers, with the Walton Family Foundation donating between $3.5 million and more than $6 million. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave between $3 million and more than $5 million over five years.

Education companies were also frequent donors. That includes: testing and publishing companies like Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Scholastic; technology companies such as K12 and News Corporation — which owns Amplify; and charter school management companies like Academica and Charter Schools USA.

The donor list follows Bush releasing three decades worth of tax records, part of revealing the details of his personal and business life as he seeks the Republican nomination for president. While the Foundation for Excellence in Education released its donor list, a related Florida-based group, the Foundation for Florida’s Future, has not released its donors so far.

Check out our database of Foundation for Excellence in Education donors below. Click on any of the columns to sort:

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