1999 AND BEYOND
In the coming years, the Corporation will continue, with some
shift of emphasis, much of the work begun previously, while making
substantial changes in direction as outlined below. The new program
headings will be Education, International Peace and Security, International
Development, and Democracy. Special Projects will continue as a
vehicle for making grants outside the regular program areas and
for encouraging cross-program collaboration. Within and across the
four main areas, we will once again be engaged with major issues
confronting higher education. Domestically, priority will be given
to the reform of teacher education and to examining the current
status and future of liberal arts education in the United States.
In our international programs, ways will be sought to strengthen
higher education and public libraries in Commonwealth Africa. As
a cross-program initiative, and in cooperation with other foundations
and organizations, we plan to assist scholars, particularly in the
social sciences and humanities, in the independent states of the
former Soviet Union.
The Education program will be concerned with formal education from
preschool through the undergraduate experience. In addition to the
aforementioned higher education programs, we will build on the foundation's
previous work in early childhood education and child care, turning
our attention to the goal of broadening access to high-quality services.
At the elementary and secondary level, special attention will be
given to the urgent need for upgrading the quality of education
in urban public school districts and to finding leaders who can
reform schools and improve achievement.
Under the rubric of International Peace and Security, the emphasis
will be on Russia and some of the former states of the Soviet Union.
It is our firm belief that the outcome of events there will be fundamental
to the world's future. The nonproliferation of nuclear, chemical,
and biological weapons will also be of central concern, as will
the roots of current and future conflict.
Within International Development, we will attempt to strengthen
a limited number of Commonwealth African universities to serve as
models of successful transformation; assist the cause of women's
higher education there, and position selected African public libraries
for the information age. The foundation will also support a few
small-scale projects to examine the rule of law in Africa and ways
African universities can assist in developing skilled manpower for
entrepreneurship.
Under the Democracy program, we will continue our support of research
and dissemination on electoral reform, concentrating on campaign
finance issues at the state and local levels and efforts to improve
the tenor of campaigns. We will also support examination of the
social, economic, and political consequences of a widened income
gap in America and studies of intergroup relations (ethnic, racial,
and religious), including the educational and cultural needs of
older Americans. The overall aim will be to reengage Americans with
our democracy and with democratic institutions and to strengthen
our common ground.
In the planning stages is a new Carnegie Fellowship Program with
the specific goal of assisting budding and, where appropriate, established
scholars whose research will contribute or illuminate the subject
areas that are within the programmatic priorities of the Corporation.
Finally, a 21st Century Fund has been created as a mechanism for
commemorating Andrew Carnegie's library benefactions and providing
one-time support for other causes. The following sections elaborate
on the ideas behind the new programs and describe them in more detail.