Steve Jobs' widow is giving two L.A. teachers $10 million to start a school for homeless and foster

[babylonsister]

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-xq-winner-jobs-rise-20160912-snap-story.html

Steve Jobs' widow is giving two L.A. teachers $10 million to start a school for homeless and foster youth

The new school, RISE, is designed around the needs of homeless and foster youth.
Joy Resmovits


Instead of going to school, school will come to you.

That’s the prize-winning idea behind RISE High, a proposed Los Angeles charter high school designed to serve homeless and foster children whose educations are frequently disrupted.

Los Angeles educators Kari Croft, 29, and Erin Whalen, 26, who came up with the idea, won $10 million in XQ: The Super School Project, a high school redesign competition funded by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs.

RISE is one of 10 $10-million winning school projects nationwide. Winners receive the prize money over five years.

XQ officials, in announcing the winners on Wednesday, described RISE as a “completely new” model. The idea is to have three to four physical sites sharing space with existing nonprofits as well as an online learning system. A bus will also be turned into a “mobile resource center,” to bring Wi-Fi, a washer/dryer and homework help to the neediest students.

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Over 700 teams applied, and 42 judges examined the applications, said Russlynn Ali, XQ Institute’s CEO and the former assistant secretary of civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education. The group had planned on naming five winners, but five became 10.

The competition, Ali said, took cues from one of the Obama administration’s signature education efforts: the Race to the Top competition, a countrywide fight for stimulus money that caused many states to rewrite their education laws. Powell Jobs declined to be interviewed, but Ali said the philanthropist was very much involved.

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http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-xq-winner-jobs-rise-20160912-snap-story.html

[hunter]

1. It would be much better if we had a functional foster care system and no homeless students.

Alas, we might have to increase the taxes of cash-heavy corporations and individuals to pay for that.