Although the bulk of that money has gone to colleges and universities, precollegiate education's share has increased by almost 50 percent during the same period, from 6 percent of the total to nearly 9 percent, says Paul Miller, vice president of the council. The increased corporate interest in elementary and secondary education can also be seen in grants to colleges to improve teacher training, he notes.
The Coca-Cola Foundation will award grants totaling at least $4 million to precollegiate and postsecondary programs selected on an annual basis. In addition, the foundation will commit to education all of the money generated by its endowment, which represents another $10 million a year. The grants will focus on literacy programs, minority education and faculty development, and leadership training for teachers.
The Coca-Cola Company historically has allocated about one-third of its annual charitable giving for education. The new commitment, however, represents "more than half of our total giving,'' Preisinger notes.
Although the company has not determined how much of its annual contribution will go to precollegiate education, several of the first grants announced will go to public schools: $2 million to the University System of Georgia to improve public elementary and secondary education in the state; $2 million for Hispanic family-literacy programs in Texas, California, and Florida; and $360,000 for a pilot program, Atlanta Peer Group Connection, which assigns seniors as mentors to freshmen in 11 Atlanta high schools.
The IBM grant program is designed to bolster teacher training in computerbased instruction and to encourage innovation in the use of educational technology.
The company says it expects to make as many as 70 grants to teachertraining institutions and another 10 to partnerships between school districts and schools of education.
Both the RJR Nabisco and General Electric grants are aimed at improving public K-12 education. Nabisco, for example, plans to provide three-year grants of up to $250,000 a year each to schools that agree to explore innovative ideas for reform. The company hopes the schools will become "laboratories for change,'' says Louis Gerstner Jr., chairman and chief executive officer.
General Electric's $20 million "College Bound'' program, which was launched in June, is aimed at doubling the number of students from inner-city high schools who go on to college. Over the next five years, the company will give between $750,000 and $1 million each to schools in Albuquerque, N.M.; Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky.; and Milwaukee. The schools chosen will develop their own improvement plans.