Privatizing Education in Africa

Educating the Poor for Profit

Peg Tyre

They think of themselves as venture philanthropists. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and other titans of Silicon Valley have made a big bet on Bridge International Academy, a for-profit chain of low-cost private schools that is proliferating like wildfire in Africa and Asia. As grantee Peg Tyre reports in a feature for The New York Times Magazine, Bridge’s mission is to educate 10 million of the "bottom billion"—children of families who live on less than $2 a day. But what do developing nations lose when they surrender one of the primary functions of the state—the education of the next generation—to a foreign corporation.

Give Them Back Their Names

Aaron Nelson

Each year, hundreds of bodies are found along the US-Mexico border. They carry no IDs. Grantee Aaron Nelsen reports on the extraordinary efforts of forensic anthropologists and immigrant groups to identify the dead and bring closure to families.

A Change of Policy

Amy Russo

Once heralded as a model of progressive immigration policy, Sweden has made an about-face. CUNY Hunter College student fellow Amy Russo, writing for Foreign Affairs, explains what went wrong.