The Ballmer Group is giving a $43 million boost to early childhood education in Washington state with gifts directed toward the University of Washington and others.
The philanthropic organization, co-founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie, is giving $38 million to the UW College of Education to support more than 1,500 scholarships over the next eight years for students pursuing bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and high school internships in early childhood education.
Other gifts include $1.65 million to Pathwaves WA, which works to promote diverse leadership in the early childhood policy field; and $4 million to Child Care Aware of Washington to advocate for improving compensation, well-being and professional development opportunities that improve recruitment, retention and workforce quality.
“The early childhood field has a historically underpaid workforce, contributing to racial and gender inequity in economic mobility for the people tasked with the healthy development of children in a critical period of growth and for the working families that rely on child care to maintain their own employment,” said Mia Tuan, dean of the UW College of Education, in a statement. “These gifts help us to begin to make systemic changes.”
The Ballmers have given previously to the UW, including in 2021 when they gave $38 million to the UW School of Social Work and UW Medicine to increase the pipeline of well-trained professionals in behavioral health across Washington state via student scholarships and specialized program support.
