The growing awareness about the plight of public schools has caught the eye of philanthropists, who last year gave a total $27.5 billion to educational causes for everything from physical improvements to scholastic achievement.

What's more, these donors are giving large gifts to individual public schools, a rare event in past years but something that's becoming increasingly common now. Even though this new source of revenue is better than no help at all, critics say these large donations aren't enough to change things in the nation's public school systems, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

"The myth is that if you give enough money to a poor school system it will improve. It's just not that simple," Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, told the newspaper.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation has released a report titled "Can Philanthropy Fix Our Schools?" It examines 18 sites that received money from a 1993 grant of $500 million from the Annenberg Foundation and finds the money that was spent made "small footprints" on the schools, but hasn't close to reforming these systems, the newspaper reports.

Another concern is that donors making large grants may exercise control over school systems, and that charitable programs can distract teachers and administrators who are already overburdened. Defenders of these gifts say neither concern is realistic, and that any philanthropic gift is minuscule when compared to overall spending by school systems.

Regardless of the criticism, it appears big gifts to public schools are a strong future trend. Other recent large gifts to schools include