He said a number of recent business trends have had an adverse impact on corporate charitable support in general and on support for education reform. For example, the latest wave of corporate mergers has usually resulted in less support for the causes of the merged companies, Mr. Cross said. Business leaders have a lot of credibility at the state level. Businesses must also work from a national perspective, said Robert B. Schwartz, the president of Achieve Inc., the nonprofit Washington organization created to promote higher academic standards in the wake of the 1996 national education summit. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander offered another perspective on corporate involvement in school reform.
Business goes to conferences.
Mr. Alexander touted such efforts as the City on a Hill charter school in Boston and the Edison Project's private management of charter schools and traditional public schools. But he also professed a commitment to the public school system. It's because we want to be one country. I think there will be a revival of support for the concept of public schools, but that doesn't necessarily mean government schools. Such niches include day care, the education of at-risk children, and special education, he said.