Weaponized generosity.

• Author: Liu, Cynthia
• Position: Eli Broad supports charter schools - Public School Shakedown - Brief article

On Sunday, September 20, the new Eli Broad museum opened in Los Angeles. Nearly a thousand parents, students, and teachers seized the occasion to march against the "philanthrocapitalist's" plan to groom 130,000 public school students in Los Angeles Unified School District to attend unregulated new charter schools.

Philanthrocapitalism describes a certain kind of "weaponized generosity" where donors offer their self-interested charitable giving to remedy the very lack they create elsewhere.

Eli Broad is the city's chief benefactor for numerous charities; his wealth comes from decades of real estate developments in the Midwest and Southern California and from the insurance industry. He has a particular interest in expanding charter schools in Los Angeles. He appears to invest a lot in the city of Los Angeles but when you look more closely, his giving defunds the public sector, and Broad ends up with the better part of the deal. For example, Broad...