News and Events 3-30-12: Remembering John Arnold, Philanthropy, Education, and Development
Remembering a Friend and Inspirational Leader
John Arnold, former executive director of Feeding America West Michigan was a wonderful friend and partner to our team, as well as an inspiration to our work in addressing the needs of vulnerable families. We will continue to share his message on cost-efficient and cost-effective ways to end hunger.
Highlights and Events
Experts sound off on Ivy League candidate for World Bank head: Our research director, Carol McLaughlin, talks with the Daily Pennsylvanian about the recent nomination of Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank. “He would bring an understanding of … how investments in education, health and the capacity-building of people can be the stimulus for economic growth.”
L.E.A.R.N. Education Conference 2012: Bridging Sectors to Rebuild Education: On Sat, March 31st, Penn Law is hosting this inaugural conference to identify solutions to major challenges in America’s public schools and to develop action-items to improve public education. Register here.
Philanthropy News
Haven’t Gates and Buffett given away their billions?: Warren Buffett and Bill & Melinda Gates are clearly known in the philanthropic world as being donation giants. However, when getting down to the nitty-gritty of the numbers, it’s interesting to note that while the money is being given away over time, it isn’t reflected that way in many figures of wealth—such as the million dollar list or the billionaire list.
Education News
Penn Researchers Lead Study on Children in Assisted-housing Programs, Educational Outcomes: Penn professors John Fantuzzo (Graduate School of Education) and Dennis Culhane (School of Social Policy & Practice) have have received a $1.275 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation for the next two years to study the intersection of educational attainment and assisted housing. This grant is on the heels of a three-year $1.4 million grant back in 2009 for data systems-based policy research.
Development News
Out of Jail, and Into a Job: In this week’s Fixes column, Tina Rosenberg profiles New York’s Center for Employment Opportunities (C.E.O), a program that transitions ex-offenders to employment. The program was recently the subject of a randomized control study conducted by MDRC, which found that it reduced recidivism by 16%-22%, a major improvement over several other programs MDRC has evaluated. The evaluation found that C.E.O.’s program produced benefits of between $1.26 and $3.85 per dollar spent; it saved society $4,900 per participant.
