Goldman Sachs helped pay for 600 kids to get pre-K education ? and it could be a model for social funding

Goldman Sachs and the Pritzker Family Foundation put up $7 million in 2013 to expand a pre-kindergarten program in Utah.

The result, according to Libby Nelson at Vox, could pave the way for a new way to fund social programs.

The investment helped expand a education pilot scheme to 595 children from low-income families in Salt Lake County.

110 of that group were identified as having special educational needs heading into pre-K, but when the children were tested again in kindergarten only one needed special education.

That saved the state $291,550 that year - with the majority of that sum going back to the investor, Goldman Sachs.

The funding method is part of a growing global trend known as social impact bonds: a kind of loan in which private entities pay for a social program, and the government pays only if the program reaches its goals.

Read the full article at Vox here.