The Gates Foundation just showered more millions on allies prepared to spread Bill Gates’ gospel of testing, test-based teacher evaluation, and Common Core.
Millions for the young inexperienced teachers who fight tenure and demand testing (Educators4Excellence); millions for Jefferson County, Colorado, where the school board and superintendent believe in testing and privatization; millions to buy off the NEA; and more. Read the link to learn who else won Gates’ money this time.
The hundreds of millions that Gates has poured into teacher evaluation by test scores has thus far produced nothing but massive demoralization.
Will anyone tell Bill & Melinda?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Micheal Milkion?
Tell them? They don’t comprehend. Did you see the interview with Charlie Rose last week? They feel they are the saviors of the American Dream. His dad is so proud of him. They don’t “get it”…at all.
They actually do! Answer: $$$$$ and egos, huge egos!
No, they don’t get the fact that their wealth makes others suffer. Yes, he donates to polio and that is good, but he does many sweeping things, such as with education changes, that are hurtfu and he isn’t about to listen to anyone. He doesn’t seem to have any respect for the teaching tradition. So why would he listen to someone he has no real respect for. After all, if you are worth listening to, you must be fairly wealth to prove your value.
Yeah, even if someone tells them, they won’t care. Bill has a gazillion dollars and didn’t graduate from college, so he thinks education is no big deal, and certainly no big deal for the 99.9%.
Oh, Bill Gates and those like him certainly DO get it.
Where’s the link? Can’t find it.
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:31:07 +0000 To: lkalinauskas@hotmail.com
Lynn, I added the link. Sorry. A hazard of age and speed.
It seems to me that those who are defensive of Gates are looking at this issue from the perspective that he has the “right” to spend his money as he pleases. But, he does not have the right to infiltrate a public entity with his dollars and turn it into yet another for profit venture.
If he is so concerned about the future of education and ALL children, then he should find ways to make the public schools work to serve all rather than to undermine education. Or, he should stay out of it. However, he has the goal of computerizing education almost from cradle to grave.
His particular obsession with all things technological isn’t shared by ALL. Nor should it be. A healthy dose of tech is fine, but too much is …. too much.
I look at it this way. The computerization of everything is akin to the freeways that are built. We continue to make roads wider and wider, some with so many ramps that the mind boggles. This is creating more chances for accidents and deaths. And, we continue to build, but all the while the job numbers are decreasing. How does this make sense? 12 and 16 lane highways to nowhere.
With computerized education we are going to run into the same idiocy. For some reason, there is never “enough”. It is like the AT&T commercials. “More, more, more. We want more!” Is that how we want life to be? Is that good for anyone?
In the short term, it seems good, for the investors and the privatizers. But, it is not good in the long run. It is not good for children. No plan has been made in order to “fix” what isn’t even broken! Where do these “failing” students go? Particularly if they aren’t allowed to graduate?
The idea that because someone THINKS something may work doesn’t prove that it will work. And, for some reason, the “investors” want to listen to people who know nothing about traditional education.
Think about it. We have people who didn’t like public education from the get-go. Schools were boring to them. They were “above it all”. They were “better”. They were self-absorbed people with some real social awkwardness. So, they found the world of computers and found something that THEY could CONTROL. And, they love it. Because, they want to CONTROL things. They made money. Money buys power. They got Citizens United passed. They bought off the political morons who would listen. And here we are.
Do we want to be like them? I was accused of being jealous of their money by one of libertarian who posts on here. No way. All I or most people want is to have enough of a nestegg to retire and not worry about starving to death or dying because of enormous medical bills. Compared to his billions, that is almost NOTHING. No. I don’t envy them one bit. I wouldn’t even want to deal with all the stuff they do. And, I would share it with agencies that would benefit most people, if I had it, and I wouldn’t be trying to make more and more money while others starved in poverty. And, I especially wouldn’t be privatizing schools and prisons and taking money away from those who serve us.
So, if we would like to become a nation of automatons, we are right on the cusp of doing so if this “reform” movement isn’t stopped in its tracks.
On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 1:29 PM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> ** > dianerav commented: “Lynn, I added the link. Sorry. A hazard of age and > speed.” >
Your story about increasing the capacity of freeways is similar to a suggestion I make in my classes. I point out that we could eliminate traffic accident fatalities by simply reducing the speed limit on all roads to less than 5 miles an hour. That simple change would save thousands of lives. Are we, as a nation, willing to pay the price to save those lives?
People keep telling them —
But it seems they were born with silver spoons in their ears.
I am sick of Bill Gates and the rest of those yahoos. They are bad people who need to crawl back under a huge rock and stop their greediness and ridiculous DEFORMS. Follow the money.
What do you want me to tell them, Diane?
First of all it’s his money and he can do whatever he wants with it. He’s not like some politician or bureaucrat looking at making decisions because he’s concerned about votes.
You continue in your attempt to polarize readers with nonsense thinking, I’m one person who does not agree.
Dick Velner – Parent, Teacher and Curriculum Writer
“What do you want me to tell them, Diane?”
Okay, where does one start?
Well, you can tell them when certain practices have been proven OVER AND OVER to not only not help improve education, but in fact have been proven to actually cause great harm to education…
Don’t fund those things.. (SEE Dr. Ravitch’s post for a list of some of them.)
“First of all, it’s his money and he can do whatever he wants with it.”
That doesn’t make it right. Why should some billionaire have more control over children’s education than those childrens’ parents?
“He’s not like some politician or bureaucrat looking at making decisions because he’s concerned about votes.”
What do you mean by “votes”? You mean “democracy”? You mean “government of the people, by the people, for the people?”
Back in the mid-1800’s, if the abolition of slavery had been decided upon only by those few people with the greatest wealth, it never would have happened.
Get thee to a civics class!
“You continue in your attempt to polarize readers with nonsense thinking, I’m one person who does not agree.”
You call Dr. Ravitch’s contributions “nonsense thinking?” Everything she writes about is backed up by voluminous evidence, data, and testimony. Read her last book, and the one coming out next month, then get back to us.
“Dick Velner – Parent, Teacher and Curriculum Writer”
Dick, take my advice… resign from teaching… at once.
Based on what you just posted, you’re a disgrace to the profession.
That’s the problem in a nutshell, Dick. Gates spends his billions to change national education policy and has no accountability. His small schools initiative was a failure, now he is on to his latest unproven and disproven reform schemes.
Since we can’t vote him out of office like other policymakers, we have to rally public opinion to try to get him to see the light.
Feel free to disagree, Dick, but Diane is a scholar who backs up everything she says with research and evidence. Your posts are the only nonsense I’ve seen on this blog.
People who do destructive things are rightfully criticized for doing so, whether they destroy with guns or money.
And no amount of razzle-dazzle about “creative destruction” will disguise the utterly destructive fact of it.
“First of all it’s his money and he can do whatever he wants with it.”
Not exactly. There are legal restrictions on what can be done with a tax deductible charitable foundation, and he’s violating those in his political machinations.
Also, educating people about the interference of the Milken brothers, the Koch brothers, the Walton family trust, and the Gates foundation is a very reasonable democratic goal. Yes, they have to be “concerned about votes” because their money can’t actually vote. One item they purchase with their tax-free business associations is our legislators, to steer our tax dollars to their cronies and pass abusive laws against our children.
But Diane, where’s the link? Could you get your staff on this, please? I can hardly wait to
“Read the link to learn who else won Gates’ money this time.”
Chemtchr
My staff messed up yet again.
I added the missing link to the article about Gates $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I will have to fire me and hire me back
Mr. Veiner,
We are a democracy. If you influence public policy with huge amounts of money instead of votes you are not playing fair. I recognize the right of Mr. Gates and company to “see” a problem with American education, but that doesn’t give them the right to change with without using the democratic process.
Dick,
So you see nothing wrong with big money influencing ed policy in this country from top to bottom in the shadowy way it’s done, while excluding the voice of citizens? Funny how highly-coordinated the spending is, like they all had the same game plan. Like they were members of a secret organization or something. It’s almost like the rich guys met in secret with Congressmen and state legislators.
The fact that all this “reform” is so secretive speaks volumes. Why are the reformers not open and above-board? Why do they do an end run around dialogue and debate? What are they afraid of?
Why do you think the popular and accepted terminology is “corporate” reform? Do you like business telling teachers what to teach?
Bill and Melinda have crafted an image that is close to deity. We need to debunk their PR machine. Bill was a guest speaker at Concordia College, Moorhead, Mn, earlier this year. From a story of it in the college magazine, he was treated with awe as though he was one of mankind’s greatest individuals ever. Ridiculous. The man ran a computer company. He made insane amounts of money from mediocre products and had a ridiculous, destructive management practice called ‘stack ranking’ where teams/groups/departments of employees were always ranked against each other no matter how good they were. (Great story in Vanity Fair, Aug 2012. http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-was-destroyed-by-its-stack-review-process-according-to-new-vanity-fair-expose-2012-7#ixzz2baFLMwtn)
Writer of the Vanity Fair piece Kurt Eichenwald’s “conversations reveal that a management system known as “stack ranking”—a program that forces every unit to declare a certain percentage of employees as top performers, good performers, average, and poor—effectively crippled Microsoft’s ability to innovate. ‘Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed—every one—cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees,’ Eichenwald writes. ‘If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,’ says a former software developer. ‘It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.'”
Stack ranking sounds a lot like Bill’s idea of teacher evaluation, doesn’t it?
Ole Bill is just a rich guy who knows nothing about evaluating employees or education, but is foisting his own destructive model on our schools, teachers, snd children because he thinks he can and others let him. He needs to be run out of town as the huckster, the snake oil salesman that he is.
Start spreading the truth. Bill needs a retirement hobby other our public schools.
Thanks Joanne…the Gates/Helms spinoff Vanity Faire article is fascinating. Much of this info is in his book, or maybe this is an offshoot of the book. Really gives insight into Gates and his drive for success at all costs. His “rocking body” makes me wonder once again if Gates is Aspergian.
I do not understand the bad mouthing of his father on this site for saying he is proud of Bill. We are all proud of our progeny even if they are not Bill Gates types. Sadly, school change is not his “hobby,” but rather his passion. Maybe it is a pact he made with Lucifer for his success. Whatever it is, there is no one who can tell him much of anything.
However the detailed initial article explanation of ‘stack ranking’ is an eye opener and is so at odds with educators collaboration techniques. It explains much about LAUSD Supt. Deasy who worked for Gates for 1 1/2 years before coming to us. It would be fascinating to test all the Broad/Gates protégés for their stack ranking behaviors and outcomes.
(as an aside…whoever is storming at me periodically has my attention, but how about just a direct confrontation rather than the thunder…I don’t know who is doing this but I can guess.)
I have wasn’t badmouthing by is dad. I made one comment. He dad seemed sweet. And yes we are proud of our kids when they do something we think is great. His dedication to wiping out polio is great. However, he seems to get ideas and shove them on others. Money buys an audience because so many people are swayed by that. I don’t think the ramifications of the movement to privatization has been thought through. Too many people are being her and left with no place to go. It seems like complying is almost mandatory, even if what is occurring is harmful. I am not impressed.
addendum…Bill gates speaking at Concordia College is almost embarrassing. Concordia is a small liberal arts religious school that few people anywhere have heard of and I am surprised he would even speak there. And to say he is not even a college graduate is also so silly. Neither is Mark Zuckerman, and between the two of them they have changed the world with their brilliance.
We may not like much of what they do, but let’s get real!
Bill Gates has amassed a fortune with his computer stuff. Good for him, but it doesn’t make him an expert on education. So here is this computer guy (not even a college graduate) throwing his money after one educational scheme after another. They all fail. He gets invited on talk shows to talk about improving education. What does he know about being a teacher or education? Not much at all. I guess he went to school at some point. It is incredible, if you think about it. Now this (one) individual who is good with computers is now somehow an expert on education and in charge of fixing the entire public school system (or dismantling it). What? One veteran teacher knows a lot more than Mr. Gates about education. Why doesn’t Gates tell surgeons how to be better surgeons, or policemen and women how to police better? Why is anyone listening to Gates at all? He is ruining his legacy by demoralizing teachers. He is making teaching very unappealing. History won’t look favorably upon him.
If Windows 8 is any indication, he’s not even very good with computers.
I HIGHLY AGREE! I had no choice but to get a new laptop this summer and Windows 8 is driving me CRAZY!
Once you go Mac, you will never go back!
🙂
As was stated elsewhere, the idea of “flexible ethics” has governed Wall St and created opportunities to make money with absolutely no conscience or even knowledge or skill of the aquired stocks and businesses. Just sell a promise, don’t really deliver it, but make money off those who buy in, and you get wealthy. No ethics there at all. Unless you are of the Ayn Rand philosophy.
Also, I have wondered about this. Bill Gates is praised for his support of polio research and elimination. Did he not use the researchers who knew about past information on polio? How is it that in the field of education, these “reformers” want to take on the education establishment instead of relying on it for input? I know there are a few educators that have been involved, but only those who buy in to the business model.
Maybe, if he has edu-bucks burning a hole in his pocket and a desire to help the poor kids, he could give some to Philadelphia, which can’t afford to open a number of its schools on time. He probably has that much in his sofa cushions.
Right on Alan!!!!
Diane, IF… IF, they read the blog “Letters to Bill Gates,” they have been told over and over… they’re just not listening… and frankly, the more I live, the more I understand the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” One can have the best of intentions, but if they don’t listen to those whose lives they’re intending to make better, then they’re likely to wreak havoc instead.
I think Gates has been planning this for a long time. I recently found out that a former superintendent in my district has been working for Gates for years, including the time she spent in Lancaster, PA. Does the name VickI Phillips sound familiar to anyone? http://www.gatesfoundation.org/who-we-are/general-information/leadership/united-states-program/vicki-phillips
She was superintendent in Lancaster about 15 years ago. She then went on to be the PA Secretary of Education, followed by superintendent somewhere in the northwest. She was also working for Gates the entire time, according to someone who worked directly with her. Apparently Gates wanted her to have as much experience as possible. He has been planning on influencing education for a long time.
Thank you Diane for identifying where and how Bill Gates is spending his money.
Now, all you Bill Gates haters, how do you reply? I should think you have much to reconsider starting with a thank you to the Gates Foundation. A quick scan of the list shows the benefit to many including dollars to the NEA.
Nothing but good can come from the reform movement and any lopsided thought of money-hungry privateers shows the ignorance of some people.
Dick Velner – Parent, Teacher and Curriculum Writer
Dick,
What do you think of Gates’ (and all the other “reformers’) hypocrisy regarding the following issues…
— class size – in the traditional public schools, he wants to fire masses of teachers, then jack class size sky high (40-to-1… 50-to-1) so that more students will be exposed to the remaining “excellent” teachers—(Oy vey!)—but at the same time, he sends his own kids to schools with exceptionally low—12-to-1 and 15-to-1—class sizes
(SEE LINK BELOW);
— Gates believes that—like bank tellers and travel agents—many, if not all teachers, can be replaced by digital and on-line learning, but at the same time, he sends his kids to schools where students are taught 100% by live, “in the room” teachers;
— college education degrees, teacher credentials, and advanced degrees don’t improve education, and thus are a waste of money, and we should stop paying for them (note the hundreds of millions total he has sent to TFA), but Gates sends his kids to expensive schools whose promotional material brag about how all their teachers are fully credentialed and possess Master’s Degrees and PhD’s…. and not a TFA in sight!
— a teacher’s years of experience in the classroom doesn’t matter and teachers should be fired after five years, or not be afforded one penny extra pay for staying beyond 5 years, yet Gates sends his own kids to schools whose promotional materials brag about how the majority of their teachers have 20 or more years experience teaching?”
— in the traditional public schools, school libraries and school librarians, classes in art, music, dance, drama, P.E., etc. are a waste of time and money, and do little or nothing to benefit traditional public school students, but Gates sends his own kids to schools whose promotional materials brag about having well-funded, first-rate facilities for all of the above…
— Gates believes in non-stop, wall-to-wall standardized tests—- testing, testing, testing — for kids in the traditional public schools, yet the rich kids’ private schools where Gates sends his own kids subject their students to almost no standardized testing… ?
Again, als of the above hypocrisy just doesn’t go for Gates, but for all the other well-healed, so-called “reformers”… i.e. Michelle Rhee’s kids in Tennessee. Somebody posted the promotional materials of the rich kids’ private school they attend, and all that is offered there—school libraries and school librarians, classes in art, music, dance, drama, P.E. etc.
On more thing about Ms. Rhee… she told TIME Magazine
regarding her prioritizing after taking over as the head of the D.C.
public schools:
“People are upset that I cut the arts, and kids aren’t allowed
to be creative any more… well, you know what? I don’t
give a crap!”
Tsk, tsk, tsk… potty mouth… Well, she obviously “gives a crap” when it comes to her own kids.
Here’s the article from
Diane Ravitch, referencing the article on
Bill Gates and his hypocrisy on class size:
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Weastneat
Here’s is the article that Diane Ravitch
references in the above piece:
http://seattletimes.com/html/dannywestneat/2014437975_danny09.html
Thank you, Danny Weastneat, wherever you are!!!
Say WHAT? I will NEVER write a thank you letter to Gates or any of his ilk. We didn’t ask for his money, and the strings attached aren’t worth it. Do you think that because the foundation gave money to NEA that we should all be kissing Gates’ ring? It just shows how much NEA has sold out, NOT that Gates is in it for teachers. He’s NOT in it for teachers.
i’m pretty sure we HAVE been telling Bill and Melinda….isn’t there a whole website that’s been dedicated to doing just that since June, called teachersletterstobillgates.com? I know my own was published late that month, and they’ve only been pouring in faster and faster as word of the site spreads.
Frankly, I’m starting to get pretty pissed at their lack of recognition, at this point. I mean, really, we’re all human beings here – who the Puck are they to feign ignorance like this? Enough’s enough. It’s time these people Man Up and answer to the People…
They are slow learners
Do public school employees and advocates really have enough power, whether political or monetary to stop the dismantling of public education? I read a post earlier from teacher in CT who after 10 years has been deemed ineffective and now has no job. Many of us could be next. How do we really fight this and why aren’t there more discussions about public education from Capitol Hill? Will have a different president in a few years change the direction we’re heading?
Constitutionally, education is supposed to be a state and local matter. Arne did an end run, even an out of bounds run with RTTT. Immigration and the entitlements are enough for them at the moment.
They don’t seem to care. They are self-assured. Believe they have to be right. Possession of billions is all the proof they need since money is evidence of success and good decision-making. We shouod all want to be just like them. Right? Except that isn’t possible.
I would suggest another motive for the Gates: they want public education DEAD, and they want teachers reduced to the level of burger flippers; in respect, pay, benefits and job security. In fact, the burger flippers don’t have to put up with the cruel excessive demands that teachers do every day.
THEY KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING, AND THEY’RE HAPPY AS PIGS IN S—.
Just like they Know the poisonous, deadly affects of Monsanto that they also support.
It irks me to give these type of corporate destroyers ANY benign motives…they must laugh when they hear it!
Will anyone tell Bill & Melinda?
Will anyone rid us of these troublesome people?
Why is it assumed by so many that if you don’t like someone’s policies that you “hate”them? Even if I think they are terrible policies, I don’t hate the person, just their choices. What I despise is that some people think they are better than everyone else by birthright or financial prowess. What I do despise is that people can use money to buy off followers willing to do their bidding. Hating the people serves no purpose. Figuring out the damage that they do to society and stopping them is not hatred!
They don’t seem to look out for the children who are going to “fail” to meet their artificial standards.
Thinking that selective assistance to a few from time to time is preferable to trying to assist everyone is not my idea of charitable contributions.
Profiting from someone else’s misery is not noble.
Seeking preferential treatment for self and your own family is not charitable.
To me, selfishness, greed, and condescension are true hatred.
History repeats itself. IBM was facing possible breakup by anti-trust. So the government allowed a space that Gates slipped in to have a separate company. That government largesse created Microsoft. So why not repeat it? This time he is already a government contractor that knows he can bleed off Billions from the taxpayer treasury in order to buy his machines- that can only be used for his testing. He may only have Aspergers but read one of several books like The Sociopath Next Door. Gangs always get the same type of mentality. And the low life gangs of him and his Buddies that are robbing all of us taxpayers are no different. http://www.scribd.com/doc/65130774/The-Sociopath-Next-Door-by-Martha-Stout-Frightening-PDF
Is it now correct to say that the Gates and the Waltons already “own” public education and the NEA?
The Gates need to be run out of “Education Town”, for sure. We’ve got to get people who support us to run for office! It was either somewhere on this blog or on Alabama’s Stop Common Core Facebook page that I read about Gates also funding the national PTA so that they can provide money for PTA’s at the school district to encourage parental support of Common Core. One of the PTA’s that was awarded some of the grant money from the national PTA is at a public school in Michigan.
You read rightly. Gates gave millions to the national PTA to get them on board.
Disgusting, isn’t it? I just hope that there are Stop Common Core groups in these areas who are ready to respond. My state has a Stop Common Core group, and I know of two state school board members who are against CC that I have communicated with despite the fact that I neither teach in a public school nor live in either of their districts, but I can’t find such groups in my city. It will be interested to see what happens when Alabama really gets going with the testing this year.
Does Bill Gates and President Obama send their kids to schools that teach under the Common Core State Standards, or is common core just for us plain folk?
Do Bill Gates and President Obama send their kids to schools that teach under the Common Core State Standards, or is common core just for us plain folk?