Chicago Annenberg Challenge - Annenberg Challenge

Annenberg Challenge

In the 1990s, billionaire Walter Annenberg, former ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Richard Nixon, was the United States' most generous living philanthropist. By 1998, Annenberg had given away more than $2 billion and the assets of the Annenberg Foundation he had established in June 1989 with $1 billion had grown to $3 billion and ranked as the 12th largest in the U.S. Every weekday from May through November, Annenberg was driven from his home in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania to his Annenberg Foundation headquarters in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, where, as its sole director, he reserved virtually every decision for himself when making grants.

In June 1993, Annenberg announced he was making the largest individual gift to private education in history—$365 million to four schools: $120 million each to the communication programs at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California, $25 million to Harvard College, and $100 million to his alma mater, the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey.

In October 1993, Annenberg announced an unrestricted $25 million gift to Northwestern University bringing his total donations to Northwestern to $55 million, his last major gift to higher education for five years as he shifted the focus of his philanthropy to public K–12 education.

Annenberg told Newton Minow, senior counsel of Sidley & Austin, chairman of the Carnegie Corporation (1993–1997), Annenberg Professor of Communications Law and Policy at Northwestern University (1987–2003) and director of its Annenberg Washington Program (1987–1996): "Everybody around the world wants to send their kids to our universities. South America, Asia, Europe, all of them. But nobody wants to send their kids here to public school. Who would, especially in a big city? Nobody. So we've got to do something. If we don't, our civilization will collapse."

Annenberg sought recommendations on making a large gift to American public schools from his pro bono education advisors:

1. Vartan Gregorian, president of Brown University (1989–1997); president of the Carnegie Corporation (1997– ); former president of the New York Public Library; former professor of Southwest Asian history, dean, and provost of the University of Pennsylvania
2. Ted Sizer, founding chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) (1984–1997); professor of education at Brown University (1983–1997); former headmaster of Phillips Andover (1972–1981); former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1964–1972)
3. David Kearns, chairman of the Alexandria-based New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC)—a 1991 school reform initiative of President George H. W. Bush; former Deputy Secretary of Education (1991–1993) under Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the George H. W. Bush administration; former president, CEO and chairman of Xerox

On December 17, 1993, the 85-year-old Annenberg announced his five-year $500 million "Challenge to the Nation" at a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with President Bill Clinton, Secretary of Education Richard Riley, Gregorian, Sizer, Kearns, and Frank Newman, Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and Colorado Governor Roy Romer (the president, outgoing and incoming chairman, respectively, of the Denver-based bipartisan Education Commission of the States (ECS).

Annenberg announced that he was giving $113 million over five years to three national school reform organizations:

1. $50 million to a new Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) at Brown University that would incorporate the CES and be chaired by Sizer
2. $57 million to the NASDC, chaired by Kearns
3. $6 million to the ECS (chaired by Edgar and then Romer, with president Newman) to disseminate NASDC models for restructuring schools

The remaining $387 million was for: school reform in the largest urban school systems, attended by a third of the 47 million public school students in the U.S.; for school reform in rural schools which make up a quarter of all public schools, attended by 1 in 8 public school students in the U.S.; and for arts education.

Annenberg delegated how to spend the $387 million to his closest professional friend, Vartan Gregorian, whom he had known for twenty years—since Gregorian's tenure at the University of Pennsylvania where Annenberg was a trustee and its largest donor. Annenberg called Gregorian: "The best all-around executive I know. A man of great character and absolute integrity. The most outstanding human being I know." Gregorian oversaw everything involved in the Challenge and ensured that it was nonpartisan. Reflecting Annenberg's vision of the Challenge as a catalyst—not a yardstick—he did not require Gregorian to meet specific benchmarks, such as dispensing funds on the basis of the schools' raising their reading or math scores by certain percentage points.

Gregorian recruited university presidents and business leaders to assemble civic teams in various cities to pursue Challenge grants, and awarded grants to 18 locally designed projects:

• Nine grants were awarded to major urban areas. These awards included matching grants ranging in size from $10 million to $53 million: New York City and Los Angeles in 1994; Chicago, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995; South Florida, Boston and Detroit in 1996; and Houston in 1997.

• Five smaller special opportunity grants ranging from $1 million to $4 million were awarded to Atlanta, Chattanooga, Chelsea, Salt Lake City, and West Baltimore.

• $50 million was awarded to set up the national Rural Challenge that involved over 700 schools across the U.S.

• Three arts education grants ranging from $3 million to $12 million were awarded to New York City, Minneapolis, and a national arts education program.