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Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

donorschoose.org

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Re: Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

#21

This is great for many of the projects but there's a down side to donors choose I wouldn't have realized before taking to some teachers. Anecdote warning: family member works in a public school district where the principal and committees won't even investigate funding requests till the teacher has put something up on donorschoose.

It really sucks that American public schools are so poorly funded. But maybe the principal and committees are just "playing the game" appropriately from their perspective. I doubt they have beanbag chairs full of cash that they're hoarding. I could see a scenario where, sure, the teacher's proposal is great. But what makes their proposal any better than the thousand others that cannot be funded?

Here is the relevant data for my city:

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2016/berkeley/

Re: Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

#23

When I think about large-scale donations I think about Melinda and Bill Gates. They don't just donate large sums of money, they donate their time and talent and take their efforts very seriously. They work hard to see every penny well-spent in an effective manner. That being said, I would love to witness a super-rich person throw a one-time insanely large lump sum of money at some problem. Like, "Here's 50 billion do…

FYI - My wife had her project funded this year by ripple, but last year her projects were funded by Melinda and Bill Gates. In both cases her projects were less than 10k, but make a huge difference to the kids in her classroom.

Re: Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really sucks that American public schools are so poorly funded. But maybe the principal and committees are just "playing the game" appropriately from their perspective. I doubt they have beanbag chairs full of cash that they're hoarding. I could see a scenario where, sure, the teacher's proposal is great. But what makes their proposal any better than the thousand others that cannot be funded?

They aren't poorly funded. I live in a suburban / rural area. The public schools here get ~$15,700 per student. Good private schools here charge ~$10,000 per student, and yet offer much better education with 2/3 the funding.

Right. The US spends more per student than most similar countries.

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-results-US.pd...

Re: Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

#25
post #5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(company)#Funding Are they profitable? How can this kind of thing be justified to shareholders?

Their currency is worth billions

There is a big difference between being worth billions and having a market cap of billions.

Re: Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really sucks that American public schools are so poorly funded. But maybe the principal and committees are just "playing the game" appropriately from their perspective. I doubt they have beanbag chairs full of cash that they're hoarding. I could see a scenario where, sure, the teacher's proposal is great. But what makes their proposal any better than the thousand others that cannot be funded?

They aren't poorly funded. I live in a suburban / rural area. The public schools here get ~$15,700 per student. Good private schools here charge ~$10,000 per student, and yet offer much better education with 2/3 the funding.

Many private schools run fundraisers throughout the year, so that cost is likely subsidized.

Re: Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

#29
$29M worth of XRP going to a good cause. Great, cash out and make good use of it.

The cynic in me sees this as a cheap PR move (an SVP of marketing promoting it doesn't help). Associating your token with a good cause gives it credibility in the eyes of the public which in turn leads to an increase in the XRP price in USD. Here's what I understand about ripple:

- 100 billion XRP was created at inception with 20 billion going to the creators and 80 billion going to Ripple labs.

- It's supposed to be a payment layer between financial institutions and XRP is the underlying token.

- Distribution of XRP is arbitrary. Ripple labs can allocate it to whoever they see fit.

Donating $29M worth of XRP costs them nothing since Ripple labs holds 80 billion XRP. Only 40 billion XRP is currently in circulation though and XRP's price is currently $0.5. I don't know, I find Ripple quite ridiculous. But the silver lining is donations such as these.

Re: Ripple fully funded every live DonorsChoose classroom project yesterday

#30
post #23

When I think about large-scale donations I think about Melinda and Bill Gates. They don't just donate large sums of money, they donate their time and talent and take their efforts very seriously. They work hard to see every penny well-spent in an effective manner. That being said, I would love to witness a super-rich person throw a one-time insanely large lump sum of money at some problem. Like, "Here's 50 billion do…

FYI - My wife had her project funded this year by ripple, but last year her projects were funded by Melinda and Bill Gates. In both cases her projects were less than 10k, but make a huge difference to the kids in her classroom.

On the one hand, I’m very proud of how much it can help with such a small donation. On the other hand, I’m depressed it has to come from donations. Seriously, what is wrong with adults these days kicking the door closed behind us?
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