<p>Of course one of the appeals of boarding school is the desire to give our children the tools with which to critique their world. So I've been looking at who supports various endowments. I just read that Koch, a Deerfield grad who is involved in the John Birch Society, just gave his alma mater 20 million. Does this give him political influence there? Are there are other schools with known political ties? Does it help or hurt the schools?</p>
<p>Certainly Board of Trustee members help pick the Head of School, and certainly thay have unique access to school leadership. However, I have never seen any evidence that big donors have any influence on hiring teachers, setting curriculum, setting admissions policies, inviting speakers, or anything else that might influence the political climate or induce the students to certain political beliefs. At least that is my experience with DA.</p>