USA Today published an article by Fredreka Schouten titled “Koch brothers’ new group will take on poverty, educational quality.” Fredreka discusses Charles Koch’s new non-profit organization called Stand Together which looks to raise $15 million this year to focus on alleviating poverty, raising educational standards and strengthen American society. The goal of Stand Together is to help people by solving real problems by working with private groups who are directly involved in dealing with social problems like gang violence, drug abuse and jail recidivism. Organizers have been working on Stand Together for a year and will launch this week at an annual seminar in Palm Springs for Koch donors.
Charles Koch and his brother David have long been involved in political advocacy and social philanthropy that targets improving poor communities through improving education and promoting free-market principles. A couple of the programs they have created include Americans for Prosperity which helps people become financially independent and the Libre Initiative which is a political and economic outreach program to the Latino community. They have contributed millions of dollars for scholarships to the United Negro College Fund, and aides to Charles Koch have been working with the Obama administration to try to overhaul the criminal justice system.
Koch Industries was inherited by Charles and David from their father back in the late 1960’s. It was originally a chemical processing company, but Charles and David transformed it into a multi-faceted company that produces everything from agricultural products to consumer products. Koch Industries has become the second largest privately held company in the US and has provided Charles with an estimated net worth of $41 billion.
Charles has used his wealth to donate millions of dollars a year to charitable causes and influence the political system. Education in poor communities has long been an issue of concern for Charles, and part of the purpose of the Stand Together program is to provide scholarships to poor children to put them in private schools.
The USA Today article can be found at http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/01/29/koch-brothers-push-poverty-education-societal-change–initiative-republican/79468744/
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