Who Elected Bill Gates?

[Hannah Bell]

I have written about Bill Gates and his interest in "school reform" for years, beginning with An Open Letter to Bill Gates, published in 2006 when I had little reason to question his motives or desire to improve public schools. Since then I wrote the School Wars: Who's Trying to Control Your Public Schools? (2008) cover story for Good Magazine in which I urged citizens to be weary of billionaire bullies trying to privatize public education. I mocked Gates' inept attempt to influence the 2008 presidential campaign with his ED in '08 organization in the article, Bill Gates and Eli Broad Go Gangsta.

I sat back stunned when Gates shared the remarkable ephipany that we should find out what effective teachers do and share those ideas with others as if such a patronizing revelation had never occurred to educators. In his incredibly condescending TED Talk, Gates went on to suggest that we film excellent teaching and share it with others; another long-established practice he thinks he invented to rescue children from all of the awful teachers consciously suppressing standardized test scores. Gates doesn't offer to film the classrooms his children attend, but rather the obedience schools like KIPP he prescribes for poor children. In the world of Bill Gates his children deserve one quality of educational experience and other people's children should receive a joyless diet of remediation, testing, deprivation, compliance and shame.

I didn't write an article when Gates complained that teachers should not be compensated for post-graduate education, not even when his puppet, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan amplified his ridiculous argument against educators being educated. I blogged that Bill Gates was investing in Khan Academy because it deskills teachers and reduces the cost of education when public schools can be replaced by a hobbyist's YouTube videos. I didn't gloat when the "School of the Future" Microsoft built in Philadelphia and based on absurd corporate fantasies proved to be a predictable failure.

I remained quiet when Bill Gates, a monopolist whose company has a record of labor violations here and abroad, when he attacked teacher seniority and pensions. His affection for Teach for America and other gimmicks to recruite cheaper less qualified and more compliant teachers is predictable. Trickling down on the little guy is what American corporate bigwigs do...You would think that nothing else could surprise me, but now, Bill Gates has descended into the delusional world of Charlie Sheen....

http://queensteacher2.blogspot.com/2011/03/who-elected-bill-gates.html

[lbrtbell]

1. Everybody who uses Windows, that's who.

If people had switched to Linux years ago, this bottom-feeder wouldn't be a gazillionaire.

[mmonk]

2. Excellent.

Of course our lords aren't elected though. We are here to serve them and their money. They are more important than the welfare of our children. Our politicians know best and so does their pocket books.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Bill Gates. n/t

[ben_thayer]

4. He's got about 60 billion votes doesn't he? eom

:evilgrin:

[liberal N proud]

5. This guy...

And lots of him.

[fasttense]

6. Money is not votes.

Just because you found a scam that makes you billions does not give you any more votes. It merely gives you the chance to buy politicians.

[Hannah Bell]

7. which is more powerful than votes. especially when your team gets to choose the candidates the

suckers will be voting for.

[Nye Bevan]

8. Nobody. Andrew Cuomo, OTOH, was elected by NY voters and has good ideas on teacher merit proposals.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/morning-buzz-cuomo-offers-teacher-merit-proposal/?src=twrhp

Hours after a new poll showing overwhelming voter opposition to the state’s teacher seniority law, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signaled interest Thursday in changing the 70-year-old statute to also include some sort of merit-based considerations for large districts facing teacher layoffs this year.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/schools/article351364.ece

It's looking like the days of using only seniority to determine layoffs are numbered, at least in New York.

[Hannah Bell]

9. *you* call them "good ideas". but they're the same old crap ideas the republicans are

pushing.

union-busting & sucking financiers off.