EDUCATION
It’s no secret that our nation’s schools are separate but unequal.  The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision addressed racial inequality in our public school system, but today our schools struggle with economic inequality. In 2001, students living in low-income families were six times more likely than their peers in higher-income families to drop out of high school. Simply put, wealthier neighborhoods have schools with better staff and resources than poorer neighborhoods. The Fish Foundation believes that we can address this inequity in smaller, more profound ways.

The Fish Foundation works to create a bridge between publishers and local school boards to offer books not available in the typical public classroom – books that promote critical thinking, practical philosophy, vocational training, and college preparation, for example. Our plan is to build a curriculum that is more palatable and practical for students facing the daily task of mere survival. By exposing young minds to material beyond what's currently offered at school, we open up new avenues for personal growth and change.

These days, computer literacy is just as important as reading literacy. It's not enough to simply put more computers in the classroom; students have to know how to use them. We work with software companies to develop training modules that can teach people valuable job skills, as well as provide access to a larger web-based world of educational opportunities. These are just a few of our ideas to give poor students the resources to better themselves.