I’m a cause-agnostic donor (as opposed to a US-focused donor) and so my primary interest in the subject under discussion is what is suggests about the philanthropic ego system as a whole. The post doesn’t seem to address the titular question - how did this happen? The US spends nearly a trillion dollars on educational spending a year. Presumably very little of this is liquidable, but the percentage that would be needed to close the shortfall is on the order of 0.0001%; the percentage that would be needed to close KIPP’s room for more funding is on the order of 0.001%; these percentages seem to be small.

Moreover the US government is not the only large funder of educational programs; the Gates Foundation appears to have spent at least $2 billion on education in the US so far.

Did conversation with John Murphy give insight into why KIPP Houston has had trouble securing the needed funds?