Schools Hit by Morality of Wal-Mart Guns Funding Charity
By Renee Dudley - Jan 22, 2013 12:01 AM ET ..
Since the Academy of New Media Middle School in Columbus, Ohio, opened in 2011, it has scraped by, with its principal cleaning toilets and a math teacher pressed into service as school nurse. Only $250,000 in gifts from the Walton Family Foundation keeps the 85-student charter school alive.
Now, in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 massacre of 26 school personnel and pupils in Newtown, Connecticut, New Media principal Andrew Sweigard said he’s worried that its angel may be tarnished. Walton family members own more than 48 percent of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest seller of guns in the U.S.
“It’s a dilemma,” Sweigard, 27, said in his cinderblock office, furnished with a worn carpet, torn chairs, and a snow shovel. “It’s a moral issue. Can we take funding from a company that is linked to a potential disaster in our school? Do we want to associate ourselves with guns?”
Sweigard’s quandary illustrates a growing tension, post- Newtown, between the Walton family’s educational giving and its primary source of income -- the retail giant that Sam Walton founded in 1962. The family’s foundation has given $312.9 million to charter schools since 1997, more than any other private donor.
Wal-Mart revenue from sales of guns and ammunition increased 76 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from April to October, the company said at an October analysts’ meeting.
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