The Gates Foundation gave $10 million to the Discovery Institute.
This is a conservative public policy institute that promotes “intelligent design” and is skeptical of evolutionary theory.
It was founded by Bruce Chapman, an official in the Reagan administration.
The purpose of the grant is for research, advocacy, and transportation.
Presumably this mean the Gates Foundation wanted the Discovery Institute to do research about and advocacy for intelligent design. Why they needed so much money for transportation is not all that clear.
If these are concerns of the Gates Foundation, why didn’t they give the money to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council, or some other august scientific group?
I don’t understand the Gates Foundation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The link below is to a fabulous 2007 NOVA program about intelligent design and the fight against it by parents and teachers in one community. What is wrong with the Gates Foundation?! Intelligent design is creationism in sheep’s clothing.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html
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This is a clever gambit to get science education some publicity. The Discovery Institute will have the money to help out some poor local public school that runs afoul of the Constitution and gets sued. The ensuing onslaught of media attention will cause an increase in the volume of the creationism/evolution debate. This will improve the teaching of science! I wish I had thought of this gambit, or that I had ten million bucks to waste.
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Those who attempt to fathom the minds (yes plural) of the Billy the Goates shall soon meet their demise. And it was written.
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I would have taken 1/10,000th of that amount in order to buy toilet paper and soap for my public school. I would have taken .025% of that amount to create full-day kindergarten for my child. I would have taken $150 to recover the amount that I shelled out for bus transportation so that my students who couldn’t afford it could attend a field trip to a museum. Thanks, Bill…but no thanks.
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“I don’t understand the Gates Foundation.”
It is not yours to fathom the mind of the great Billy the Goates. For mere mortals he is incomprehensible.
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The article says that the grant was made to a subsidiary of the Discovery Institute that was studying light rail as a solution to solving the problem of isolation of people living in the rural Northwest. The Foundation says that it was unaware of the connection between the grantee and the Discovery Institute.
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That makes a lot more sense.
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According to Right Wing Wiki:
http://rightwing.wikia.com/wiki/Discovery_Institute
Quite a potpourri of issues:
“The Discovery Institute through the Center for Science and Culture has been advancing the agenda set forth in its mission statements in both the political and social spheres. That agenda includes the intelligent design movement; transportation in the American and Canadian northwest (Cascadia); a bioethics program opposed to assisted suicide, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human genetic manipulation, human cloning, and the animal rights movement. Its economics and legal programs advocate tort reform, lower taxation, and reduced economic regulation of individuals and groups as the best economic policy. Discovery Institute also maintains a foreign policy program currently focused on Russia and East Asia.”
Does anybody really think that the Gates Foundation does not know this is a subsidiary of the Discovery Institute?
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One can only imagine what their foreign policy program is like…
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The parallel between intelligent design and education reform is astounding. The similarities between intelligent design and creationism are uniquely ironic in their transparency. It is so easy to see through the thin veneer of science that it is almost laughable. Then again, the “education reform” movement which sees education as a cash cow to make money off from and to squeeze tax reductions out of is a close second. Until Americans stop considering the smartest people on the planet to be the richest, we won’t see an end to hedge fund managers attempting to cash in on education by claiming they are in it for the kids. Change is on the horizon. Every person I mention the APPR testing of students for teacher evaluation to roll their eyes and shake their head. Perhaps almost everyone can see the emperors new cloths for what they are?
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I’m confused – Why they “needed so much money for transportation” is spelled out in the article. Gates funded a transportation project, not ID research, not ID advocacy. Granted, it tells a much better story to say that a perceived enemy of public education is supporting some sort of the anti-science conspiracy, but the truth is (usually) much more mundane. What good does it serve to mis-represent the Gates Foundation?
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It does much better good to represent the Gates Foundation for the real (not perceive) damage that they have inflicted upon public education through their zealous mis-anthropy.
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I wouldn’t rule out some sort of political maneuvering by Gates. They may want to curry the favor of pro-ID groups to support their charter agenda by showing they will support groups like the Discovery Institute.
This looks like just the usual mutual back-scratching done corporate-style. But note how private money has no strings or oversight. The fact that Gates will support an anti-scientific, anti-rational, anti-intellectual front group, yet all the while championing “high quality education”, is just more evidence that the reformers see only care about profits not education.
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I thought the quote at the end of the article was pretty powerful: Pennock ends his e-mail to Salon with criticism over the inquiry into the groups that finance Discovery’s work. “Finally, I have been asked to advise you that it is unseemly for people who dislike one program at a think tank (or a university — or an on-line magazine, for that matter) to try to pressure funders of other programs there,” he writes. “It is illiberal and contrary to the spirit of free speech.”
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Can we at least finally throw out the farce that Gates is a liberal?
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Well, that was eight years ago.
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The take-away here is that throwing money at something without doing careful vetting first first can be disastrous. Here’s my take on the Gates Foundation’s education work: The foundation leaps to conclusions based on a bit of evidence from studies that it has conducted. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
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I agree with you. Someone did not do their homework. Someone no longer works for the Gates Foundation.
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Maybe the 10 million is to reverse their opinion. He tends to buy those that may oppose his “plans” or are in the way of the new science standards??
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Yup, I agree.
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Why is Ravitch seizing on an 8-year-old article and misinterpreting it on top of that? As other commenters point out, the Gates grant here was to a group studying light rail transportation. Nothing whatsoever to do with intelligent design, as the article that Ravitch links makes perfectly clear. It is thus 100% false for Ravitch to say, “Presumably this mean the Gates Foundation wanted the Discovery Institute to do research about and advocacy for intelligent design.”
A quote from the article:
“Several biologists and representatives at organizations that promote evolution education say they have no problem with the Gates grants to Cascadia. “I’ve been getting so many e-mails from people who are frothing at the mouth at this,” says Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, whose tag line is “Defending the Teaching of Evolution in Public Schools.” “There is confusion about, ‘What is Bill Gates doing supporting intelligent design?’” As far as Scott is concerned, the Microsoft chairman is not funding intelligent design.”
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A link to a 2005 article that was describing pledges made in 2000 and 2003? Hot news.
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Philip Anschutz, known as the Christian Billionaiire, is a staunch supporter of. Discovery Institute. Anschutz produced the anti-public education and anti-union movies, Waiting For Superman and Won’t Back Down,
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I think Dotconnector just connected the dots.
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And let us not forget that Mr. Gates was one of the stars in Waiting For Superman and spent millions of dollars promoting it -apparently the Billionaires stick closely together.
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Evolution is a bit of a stretch for me.
Then again, so is Bill Gates.
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Is it that Billy the Goates is the product of evolution that makes it a stretch for you???
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Ok, I read the article. “Presumably” the grant “mean[s] the Gates Foundation wanted the Discovery Institute to do research about and advocacy for intelligent design”? Even though the article notes that the grant was for “the institute’s ‘Cascadia Project,’ which strictly focuses on transportation in the Northwest”?
If there’s any place left for good faith and accuracy, this post should be revised or taken down.
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I wrote earlier before I had read the article that the Gates foundation had not properly vetted Cascadia, but I find myself agreeing with you that I made unwarranted assumptions. I am not a fan of ID; I see no reason to try to justify faith with science. However, after reading for what the grant was intended, I am not sure it is fair to assume the grant is not justified. I am not Catholic and do not hold many of their beliefs, but I would not hesitate to seek an education within their fine university system. I think we need more information before we make any assumptions.
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Any vetting failure would simply be a failure to ensure that the grant didn’t indirectly support other work that the Gates Foundation either (1) was opposed to on principle or (2) thought would create bad public relations. What’s more concerning to me is the dynamic where appearing to score points in a debate is more important than being honest.
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FLERP!
I took your advice. I took down that post. It didn’t feel right to me. Of course, I would never give a nickel to the Discovery Institute, but that’s just me.
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Diane,
If you took the post down, why can I still respond to it? Or am I missing something?
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Gates is very simple it is all about total domination. Fundamentalists have always been in lockstep and that is just what they want. Deny reality just believe what you are told and ask no questions. He is a fascist at heart as are his pals and cohorts. They believe they have the “Divine Right” to do this. This personality is obvious through time in history. Now the “Emperor has no clothes” and is exposed. One thing for sure is that they cannot handle the truth.
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Well…Gates has no clue. He is just a marketer.
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If they are so concerned about education, why don’t they jus pt give the money directly to the school districts. They could just give $10 mil to NYC schools for Pete’s sake!! I’m so sick of hearing about their grants and donations to nothing that helps schools. It’s disgusting.
Sent from my iPad
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People are criticizing the age of article and that the money was supposed to be used to transportation. As someone who has had to directly deal with the evil doings of the Discovery Institute, I would not be so quick to defend Bill Gates or his Foundation. DI’s sole mission is anti-science no matter what they might front as their “Mission” Statement. They have goals to get their “members/believers” to become math and science teachers in public schools and then try and get curriculum changed through official means saying it is false and fake. (i.e. abstract math is not real). I had to deal with them trying to get classes and lectures done a science museums under the guise of “Science” but really the content was about how science was fake. You don’t have to do a lot a digging (i.e. researching) to see their real motivations. Their manifestos are on the internet (at least they were when I showed the president of my work when he couldn’t fathom why customers were complaining about DI doing a lecture).
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Actually, the Discovery Institute has come out against the teaching of either intelligent design or creationism in public school because they have no scientific backing.
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