Brown pledges $10M endowment,<br> fellows for public schools

PROVIDENCE – Inspired in part by a report from its Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, Brown University has pledged to create a $10 million endowment for the Providence public schools and sponsor up to 10 fellows to work in the schools for three years each.
The endowment, which Brown said it will start raising immediately, will be administered by Brown with input from the Providence schools superintendent. It could yield as much as $500,000 in its first year, Brown said.
In addition, an “urban education fellows” program will place Brown graduates with master’s degrees in teaching or urban education policy in the city’s schools, reimbursing them for their full tuition after three years of service.
“Lack of access to a good education, particularly for urban schoolchildren, is one of the most pervasive and pernicious social problems of our time,” Brown President Ruth J. Simmons said in a news release. “Colleges and universities are uniquely able to improve the quality of urban schools. Brown is committed to undertaking that work.”
The Slavery and Justice Report can be read at www.brown.edu/slaveryjustice.