Boosted by a near-universal concern about the state of the nation's public schools, education and education reform is growing faster than any other philanthropic sector, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports.

Research by the Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Charitable Statistics found that the number of nonprofits working in the area of education grew from 2,450 in 2003 to 2,622 in 2004. The trend holds true in Washington state, where NCCS found that the number of education nonprofits grew some 7 percent from 2003 to 2004, while their assets increased 13.4 percent and their revenues shot up roughly 37 percent.

Without a doubt, the Business Journal notes, education nonprofits in the Puget Sound region have benefited from the generosity of such high-profile local donors as the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $2.3 billion in education reform initiatives nationally, with a focus on secondary school reform, since 2000, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which has begun to focus on engaging children more deeply in the learning process.

For their part, education nonprofits in Washington have evinced a particular interest in early childhood learning. Seattle-based Foundation for Early Learning program director Garrison Kertz said the heightened interest in this area began about six years ago, when brain scanning revealed the importance of early development. Not long after, the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act stressed the critical importance of closing achievement gaps early on. According to Kirlin Foundation executive director Ron Rabin, "attention has moved to the first five years because if there's more early intervention, you have fewer problems later on."