A Disappointment for Bill Gates and Betsy DeVos

By dianeravitch

March 16, 2019 //

I don’t know what this means, but I’ll take it.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite poems, by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light.

Categories Education Reform

55 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

dienne77 says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:16 pm

The link won’t open for me because it says the “resource limit is reached”. So what’s the good news?

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Bob Shepherd says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:33 pm

I usually hate these lists. But in this case, an extraordinarily wise choice! Congrats, Diane. Well deserved!!!

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- Charles says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 3:26 pm
  
  I agree! Two thumbs up! And an electronic high-five! You earned it!
  
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- Charles says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 4:38 pm
  
  Agreed!! Two thumbs up, and a “high-five”! You earned it!!!!
  
  Reply
Linda says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:36 pm

A list without Arne Duncan’s name and, a list with Diane Ravitch’s at the top is reason to celebrate.

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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 1:19 pm
  
  And Gates burned schools at both ends
  With testing and with VAM
  But ah, my foes and oh, my friends
  Exposed is now the sham
  
  Reply
dienne77 says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:41 pm

Ah, now it opens. An interesting assortment of characters. Ranging from real educators like Deborah Meier and real researchers like Pasi Sahlberg and Edward Deci to charlatans like Guru No. 6: “Professor John Hattie is a researcher in education. His research interests include performance indicators, models of measurement and evaluation of teaching and learning.” (Paging Dr. Swacker, paging Dr. Swacker!).

For what it’s worth, Diane, congrats!

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- Robert Rendo, Private Citizen says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 4:21 pm
  
  Congratulations, Diane! Well deserved and long overdue!
  
  I would hesitate to put Randi Weingarten’s name on this list because she has been mainly instrumental is keeping the structures of the UFT and AFT so straightjacketed that teachers have not been able to change its politics and policies rapidly enough as a result of very little ease in electing new officials. Subsequently, what educators have experienced throughout the reform movement was never allowed to be addressed as a rapid response to the crises unfolding.
  
  Randi has recently changed her tune only because she’s had to in order to remain relevant and in power. The delegate system to the UFT and AFT is a closed deal, largely based on loyalty oaths, wining and dining, censorship of voice, and the logistics of getting to certain forums to vote.
  
  No, I would not acknowledge Weingarten here as a true guru or hero, but she is a prime opportunist and knows never to waste a good crisis. However, because she’s blowing her winds more in our direction, I say take from her whatever you can while it’s coming our way. And also, at the same time, fight like hell to change the “democratic structure” of the state, city, and national teachers’ unions.
  
  Until the voting structures and polices of educator unions changes to become truly democratic, they will always remain corrupt machines of unjust and hypocritical innovation.
  
  But do take what you can get while you can get it . . . .
  
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- Robert Rendo, Private Citizen says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 7:25 pm
  
  Congratulations, Diane! Well deserved and long overdue.
  
  I would hesitate to put Randi Weingarten’s name in this list because she has been mainly instrumental is keeping the structures of the UFT and AFT so straightjacketed that teachers have not been able to change its politics and policies rapidly enough as a result of very little ease in electing new officials. Subsequently, what educators have experienced throughout the reform movement was never allowed to be addressed as a rapid response to the crisis unfolding.
  
  Randi has recently changed her tune only because she’s had to in order to remain relevant and in power. The delegate system to the UFT and AFT is a closed deal, largely based on loyalty oaths, wining and dining, censorship of voice, and the logistics of getting to certain forums to vote.
  
  No, I would not acknowledge Weingarten here as a true guru or hero, but she is a prime opportunist and knows never to waste a good crisis. However, because she’s blowgun her winds more in our direction, I say take from her whatever you can while it’s coming our way. And also, at the same time, fight like hell to change the “democratic structure” of the state, city, and national teachers’ unions.
  
  Until the voting structures and polices of educator unions changes to become truly democratic, they will always remain corrupt machines of unjust and hypocritical innovation.
  
  But take what you can get while you can get it!
  
  Reply
Catherine King says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:43 pm

Diane I think that’s GREAT, especially that you were FIRST on the list.

Did you notice that 23 of the 30 were male, and none were black? CBK

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- Linda says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 1:56 pm
  
  Both Dr. Hernandez of Fordham University (at CNN) and, Dr. Keith Benson (open letter linked at Ravitch blog- Feb. 16) observed something of note. The few people of color represented in the billionaire boys club-funded ed groups are those willing to sell out their communities. We all hope their number and influence declines.
  
  On the other hand, we should all work to elevate the prominence of people working hard for public education. And, since communities of color have been unrelentingly targeted first for privatization i.e. exploitation, their representatives are owed top positions on lists of those influencing for the good.
  
  Reply
GregB says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:49 pm

Suggested theme song you can use:

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- Linda says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 2:00 pm
  
  The public deserves an identifying theme song for Diane- good idea, Greg!
  
  “‘Hallelujah’ can be added to the hopper for consideration.
  
  Reply
  - GregB says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 2:33 pm
    
    I thought of this because the kids around the band reminded me of a lot of us here.
  - Linda says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 5:28 pm
    
    Couldn’t agree more.
  - GregB says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 1:33 am
    
    This is probably the best theme song I can imagine for Diane. “Eyes of a Child” is an obvious lyric. But somehow I think this verse was unknowingly written for her:
    
    “It’s true I am guilty, my reputation esteemed
    I stood up and admited my greif and my sin
    But I beleive that a soul can rewrite it’s wrong
    And in the sweet ascension of a redemption song”
  - Linda says:
    
    March 20, 2019 at 9:01 am
    
    Ascension of democracy-
  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    March 20, 2019 at 10:53 am
    
    The autocratic billionaire oligarchs want to BURY democracy, bury the republic, bury the US Constitution, and bury the working class up to their eyeballs in debt and poverty.
Lloyd Lofthouse says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:51 pm

Who is the real Bill Gates? To discover the answer to that question we have to look back at his reputation before he launched the Bill and Melinda GAates Foundation along with the PR campaign to make people think he was a saint.

“Gates’ public persona has undergone a huge transformation in the 39 years that Microsoft has been around. At first he was known as a brilliant-but-obnoxious technical wiz kid. Then as a brilliant but bad-tempered CEO. Then as a ruthless businessman taken down by the Department of Justice. Then as a visionary technologist subject to occasional email tantrums while keeping watch over then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.” …

The real Bill Gates is a control freak:

“In those days we used to have these things called BillG reviews. Basically every major important feature got reviewed by Bill Gates. ….

“In my BillG review meeting … a person who came along from my team whose whole job during the meeting was to keep an accurate count of how many times Bill said the F word. The lower the f***-count, the better.”

https://www.businessinsider.com/4-great-stories-about-bill-gates-2014-8

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is not a real nonprofit. It is a tax shelter that pretends to be a nonprofit.

Since 2000 when Gates announced he was going to give away all of his wealth, his net worth went from $63 billion to $98.3 billion in addition to the fact that his foundation has given away $41 billion since 2000. Of course, that isn’t all of his money. Others like Warren Buffet also donated billions to his foundation. Gates even visited China and tried to convince China’s billionaires to give money to his foundation but most if not all of them did not do that. Instead, they listened politely and did not give Gates a cent.

I’ve read that the Gates foundation only has to give away 5-percent of its assets a year to non-profit ventures and the rest of that tax-sheltered fortune is allowed to be invested often into ventures that are the opposite of what the non-profit is donating to.

Yea, Bill Gates isn’t going to leave his fortune to his children but he is going to turn over his foundation to them to manage. Imagine how much his children will be paid to do that.

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- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 1:00 pm
  
  You can learn everything you need to know about Bill Gates from cofounder of Microsoft Paul Allen, who wrote a book about his experiences with Gates and was interviewed by “60 minutes”.
  
  Gates actually plotted to cut Allen out of the company at one point, but Allen overheard him talking to Steve Balmer about the plan and just have threatened legal action because Gates backed down.
  
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  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 1:17 pm
    
    “Some days working with you is like being in hell.”
    
    Paul Allen on Gates, Microsoft.
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 1:24 pm
    
    Im sure a lot of teachers feel that working under the thumb of Gates (with policies like Common Core and VAM) is hell.
- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 1:41 pm
  
  I bet the f count goes way up (along with Bills blood pressure) whenever Diane Ravitch comes up in conversation at either the Gates house or Foundation.
  
  Reply
  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 1:45 pm
    
    Hmm, interesting, maybe an experiment is called for. Let’s do all we can to raise that blood pressure until something in his brain pops.
  - Catherine King says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 2:38 pm
    
    Lloyd Lofthouse In a related article (posted elsewhere here also) here is Koch talking about controlling the places where their donations go from the Nonprofit Quarterly (see bold print):
    
    “A prime example of giving with political intent is Charles Koch, who, along with his brother David, has donated to colleges across the country, providing ‘$200 million to support 800 faculty positions on 300 campuses throughout the US.’ Their giving supports their objective—to strengthen support for their free-market, Randian political philosophy. Other donors might have different goals, but their philosophy of giving is close to the approach David Koch describes: ‘If we’re going to give a lot of money, we’ll make darn sure they spend it in a way that goes along with our intent. And if they make a wrong turn and start doing things we don’t agree with, we withdraw funding.’”
    
    “Lest we see Koch as a special villain, he may simply be stating honestly the position and expectation of many high-dollar donors. In the face of great wealth and clear intent, NPQ has observed that university leaders face the challenge to ‘reconcile their responsibility to be publicly accountable with the demands of the philanthropic marketplace where they need to succeed.’ According to a report issued by UnKoch My Campus, donors seek to influence areas traditionally the sole purview of boards and leadership staff, including “hiring, scholarly activities…the creation of curriculum and academic programs…and student activities, from student groups to graduate fellowships.” . . .
    
    https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2019/03/12/saying-no-to-donor-demands-should-be-a-core-competency/?utm_source=NPQ+Newsletters&utm_campaign=cc9f5fc97d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_11_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_94063a1d17-cc9f5fc97d-12886885&mc_cid=cc9f5fc97d&mc_eid=cc73fe1cff
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 2:06 pm
    
    Typical conversation in which Diane Ravitch is mentioned
    
    Anyone: “Diane Ravitch…”
    Bill Gates reply: ” Fing Diane Ravitch f f f f f f….f Diane Ravitch…ffffff….(for 3 hours straight — interrupted only by Melinda calling everyone to dinner and then resumed for 4 more hours after dinner until Bills bed time.
  - Linda says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 5:40 pm
    
    Catherine,
    Weekly, Meghan McCain proves the cluelessness of the “elite”. Last week she bragged about Arizona State as an alternative to USC, citing her family’s ownership of an academic center there. It’s not on her radar that strings-attached money distorts and corrupts the foundation of academic independence.
    Koch is also a big presence on Arizona State’s campus.
  - Linda says:
    
    March 16, 2019 at 5:52 pm
    
    The reality of Bill Gates is untethered to his PR.
    I spoke with a person who would have a better understanding of broader public opinion. He said Gates’ brand has lost its luster due to Bill’s animosity to the common good of education.
- jcgrim says:
  
  March 17, 2019 at 8:14 am
  
  Congratulations, Guru Diane. I was especially happy to see you first on that list. I was pleased not to see the usual suspects who use their billions to sell distorted versions of education policy to new outlets.
  
  I think your work has made a huge impact on the discourse of education reform. You’ve shifted thinking at the grassroots by drilling holes miles deep in reformy arguments. The effort by philanthropists to reshape public ed has been nothing but disastrous for poor children & families and people are waking up to that fact.
  
  There is a new book by Anand Giridhardas, Winner Take All, that challenges the donor class. He argues that they’ve made inequality much worse and use their donation to perpetuate their grip on power. For example, enacting single payer health care would cost the elites because they’re getting wealthy from the current mess. The same goes with funding public education and how the elite use charter schools as philanthropic swag.
  
  He nails it here:
  “We talk about doing more good. But we never ask these people to do less harm. We talk about giving back, but we never talk about how much these people take and the structures of taking” Watch to his interviews here.
  
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 10:42 am
    
    His book is terrific.
Joe Jersey says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:53 pm

Any thoughts about Salman Khan: Salman Khan is a Bangladeshi Indian American educator entrepreneur and former hedge fund analyst. He is founder of Khan Academy which is a free online platform for education worldwide. It is mainly focused on sciences and mathematical field and those subjects are presented through more than 4000 videos which is having more than 1 million subscribers.

Hedge fund analyst? Oh, oh!

All that being said, congratulations to Diane, an advocate for our actual real public school system.

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- Linda says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 5:58 pm
  
  When the rich kids watch videos or type along side software programs at home (schools-in-a-box) instead of learning from teachers, we can take a 2nd look at the formula. But, not before then.
  
  Reply
- SomeDAM Poet says:
  
  March 17, 2019 at 9:40 am
  
  I once spent a little time watching a random selection of Con Academy videos on physics and math and concluded that the fellow doesn’t know much about either.
  
  I’ll readily admit I didn’t watch many videos, but the few I did watch did not impress me.
  
  In one of the math videos I watched, he demonstrated his ignorance of very basic math (commutative property) and in one of his physics videos he demonstrated his ignorance of very basic physics –calling displacement distance (and actually claiming that distance can be negative!) and generally confusing vectors and scalars, about as basic a mistake as you can make)
  
  That was several years ago and maybe he now has people with a clue producing his videos, but he himself clearly has none.
  
  Reply
Charles says:

March 16, 2019 at 12:55 pm

Please accept an electronic “high-five”!

“Honorary degrees are for presidents of the United States, and other such riff-raff”
-H.L. Mencken

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Reteach 4 America says:

March 16, 2019 at 1:13 pm

Perhaps it means that, for the most part, education as a whole is still a meritocracy and the educational leaders who people look up to are experts who know what they are talking about and have the best interests of students at heart. If that is the case, I think it’s a great call!

The absence of Gates, DeVos and others who have sought to be educational leaders, mostly by virtue of their deep pockets and political connections, suggests there is little room today for charlatans pushing their preferred ideologies and personal agendas. After decades of their undue influence on education, I think it’s about time!

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Laura H. Chapman says:

March 16, 2019 at 1:50 pm

I don’t know how the choices were made or how the ratings were determined but a handful of really well-infomed educators made the list,(and have a lovely light) but too many are beancounters of flash in the pan charlatans.

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- retiredbutmissthekids says:
  
  March 16, 2019 at 2:53 pm
  
  Agree, Laura (Renzulli, Marzano {ugh! I remember having to sit through boring & meaningless P.D.}, Khan & Weingarten???).
  But they got Diane, Deborah & Pasi right {except he, too, should have received the highest rating}).
  Congratulations for the recognition, Diane!
  (Would have liked to see Carol Burris on this list.)
  
  Finally, the Gates are to education what Elizabeth Holmes & Sunny Balwani are to the health care industry–poison & death.
  & the same comment to the Sacklers RE: Big Pharm.
  
  Reply
retired teacher says:

March 16, 2019 at 3:28 pm

Now you can add “Global Guru” to your long list of accomplishments. Whatever it means, it is well deserved!

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LeftCoastTeacher says:

March 16, 2019 at 6:41 pm

That is a great poem. Carpe diem. When you burn the candle at both ends, however, Diane, the light is so lovely and the flame dances with such unshackled self-determination that other candles are brought close and lit to burn, and still others are successively lit by them, and together, the candles glow beyond the night. The monopolistic Gateses and DeVoses of the world spend their lives amassing and maintaining mountains of gold, but their treasure doesn’t shine with the power of many more than 350,000 warm flames; it melts under the heat the fire over time.

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Charles says:

March 16, 2019 at 7:16 pm

You have certainly earned this accolade. I congratulate you. Sincerely!

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Caligirl says:

March 16, 2019 at 11:37 pm

Of course, Diane is at the top of the list !

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carolmalaysia says:

March 17, 2019 at 5:49 am

Diane, you belong at the top!!! Congratulations. You speak out for all of us who are or were digging in the trenches. We need a voice and you are the absolute BEST!!!!

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Akademos says:

March 17, 2019 at 10:00 am

That is something. You beat out Marzano and the founder of the hugely popular Khan Academy. Randi W. is #25.

Gates is no guru, nor even a real player. Just a fiddler, a failed tinkerer.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  March 17, 2019 at 10:34 am
  
  An 80-year-old woman with a computer, the Internet, and a lot of history and experience. Brains over money.
  
  Reply
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 4:22 pm
    
    A woman a plan a blog
    Golbanalpanamowa!!
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 4:45 pm
    
    That doesn’t look like a palindrome to me!
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 5:13 pm
    
    It’s a special kind: a Sarah Palindrome
  - retiredbutmissthekids says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 6:17 pm
    
    The Big 3: brains, history & experience, & history essential. Educational historians? Very rare…you, Diane, are a national treasure.
    “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”
    “Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again & getting the same result.”
    Diane, a well-deserved, long-overdue listing, because you are #1.
    (& kudos to Deborah Meier, as well.)
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 6:18 pm
    
    Ok, I looked up Sarah Palindrone and it is defined as something that makes no sense regardless of the direction.
    
    So I suppose what I wrote must actually be a semiSarah Palindrone, which makes sense in one direction but not the other.
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 6:22 pm
    
    Or maybe Sarah PalindroNe is the term if it only makes sense if read in one direction.
  - SomeDAM Poet says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 6:28 pm
    
    Or maybe it makes sense to most people if read left to right and only makes sense to Sarah Palin if read right to left
  - Reteach 4 America says:
    
    March 17, 2019 at 8:39 pm
    
    Heart, too, Diane. In my book, the big three are brains, a lot of experience in your area of expertise and heart. You’ve definitely got the full package and we are so fortunate to have you in our world!
  - Reteach 4 America says:
    
    March 18, 2019 at 4:33 am
    
    Love this and thought you’d appreciate it too, Diane. Enjoy!
Arhur R Spitzli says:

March 20, 2019 at 3:57 pm

Congratulations, Diane. Very well deserved.
You inspire this retired educator every day.

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carolmalaysia says:

March 22, 2019 at 6:27 pm

I have a great state Representative Chris Chyung from House District 15 in NW Indiana. He supports public schools. Here is part of an email that he just sent out. It includes the editorial from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. I have written Chyung a number of times telling about the bad situation in Hoosier schools.
…………………………………….
This comes from Rep. Chyung’s email:

This editorial from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Budget shuffle shortchanges public schools helps explain why public schools are seeing less funding from the state.

The editorial paints a clear picture:

“Per-student support was slashed and has not increased to keep up with inflation. The cut coincided with the state’s takeover of school general fund costs, reducing the authority of locally elected school board members to meet district needs, including teacher pay.”

“While budget projections appear to give Northwest Allen schools a comfortable increase over the next two years, the money simply reflects the district’s increased enrollment. Per-student funding, adjusted for inflation, has dropped by nearly $500 since 2009, Himsel, Superintendent of Northwest Allen County Schools, said.”

I am fighting to increase funding for our public schools.

Sincerely,

State Representative
House District 15

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Editorial: Budget shuffle shortchanges public schools | Indiana House Democratic Caucus

https://indianahousedemocrats.org/news-media/fort-wayne-journal-gazette-editorial-budget-shuffle-shortchanges-public-schools

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