I’d throw a major amount of money behind establishing a large number of Charter schools, focusing on Technical Education. Face it, there a lot of kids who have no desire, ability, or need to go to college, so why should they have to jump through all of the college prep hoops in public school? Make sure they get the necessary education in the basics, then let them get their hands dirty in learning a trade. By the time some of their contemporaries finish college, with a degree in something useless, no skills whatsoever and a mountain of debt, the charter students would have years of experience in productive and quite lucrative jobs as plumbers, electricians, mechanics, construction workers, chefs, etc. Let them get taught by people who actually have done the job. Charter schools can be wonderful institutions, but they need to be massively funded to get past the Public School lobbying roadblocks.
Then I would establish a series of “Cicely” scholarships, mainly in medicine and veterinary medicine. Full ride through grad school in exchange for 5 years service in some benighted backwater of the country. Set up clinics linked to the closest hospital with tons of computer and video uplinks, so the more experienced docs there can be “on call” for diagnosis and such.
Then I think I’d set up a series of small-business no interest loans for legal immigrants into my area. Maybe get somebody to start a Chinese take place that delivers.
I’d found a non-profit college counseling business. Counselors would volunteer in specific needy schools where they would meet with kids starting freshman year to help them develop plans for the future: they’d know enough about a variety of schools, vocational to Ivy, to help direct kids to good matches. They’d know about financial aid and how to get a waiver for SAT and application fees and they’d just generally hand-hold and nag in a way offical counselors don’t have time for. Particularly promising kids would be directed to more specialized counselors if needed/appropriate (like a military academy person or an athletic scholarship person)
I’d make strategic land purchases down here in my county to help counteract suburban sprawl.
Then I’d set up some kind of academic house for Geography majors at my grad school. It would be rent free to any Geography major with a 3.5 GPA. I’d make sure the place had an outstanding geographic library and resources. Living there would be sweet enough that getting kicked out would suck big time. I’d live there to enforce the rules.
I’d also build enough student housing to glut the rental market and screw the shitty slumlords who hate the students that power the local economy.
Then I’d provide a huge grant to the Geography professors. There’d be a lot of hoops to go through to get it but the real criterion would be which of them would debase themselves the most for the money. But I’d still make the grant worth having.
Second, I’d put most of it in two fields I consider essential:
education. Fellowships for people who normally don’t have access to them. My local government gives fellowships to PhD students so long as they can fill in a few pieces of paperwork, meet certain economic criteria and stay “in good standing”; they don’t give a shit what your GPA is/was so long as it’s good enough to stay in the program. The fellowship is for living expenses, no tuition (in my case, the tuition was covered by being an RA). People from other places or on other programs don’t have access to something like this.
small-business startups. Educate them on things like “how to figure out your prices”, “how to make sure your taxes and payroll are done right, even if you hire an accountant to do them”… and then the loan. Sort of microcredits for the first and second world, with an education on top.
I’d look to fund primary and secondary education in developing countries. Nothing fancy. No multimillion dollar schools. But clean buildings, paid teachers, books, meals. I’d also look into the plight of street kids. Cities all over the world have kids that are living on the streets for a variety of reasons. I’d work to make sure that they have a place to live, food and clothing, and then get them into those schools I’m also supporting.