Calling Out Bill Gates on Treating Schools Like Corporations

by Mike Smith · 2009-12-14 07:57:00 UTC
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Bill Gates' injection of funds into reforming the education system — $200 million annually — causes some to contend that his influence makes him the Real Secretary of Education. His money targets schools agreeing to pursue ambitious reform, with his goals to reform US education reflecting the Obama administration's plans — basing teachers' pay on test scores and agreeing on common national academic standards.

Alan Singer notes that Gates admitted his plan to open small mini-high schools hasn't been as successful as he'd hoped. Gates said "we are trying to raise college-ready graduation rates, and in most cases, we fell short." Singer uses this announcement to poke some massive holes in Gates' general vision for education. Singer is unimpressed by Gates' big vision to put the best teachers' lectures online, and of Gates he explains "not only are you fool, but you are cheap fool at that." He further suggests that a venture philanthropy approach to education that links corporate profits with "the broader social good" is happening to such an extent that it's dangerous, with students the ones who will suffer.

He's right to be weary — annual corporate results and a student's report card are not the same thing, and believing that increasing test scores indicates a better education is misguided. Achievement is not signified solely by a report card, something the CEO-like managers coming in to run America's schools don't seem to understand. When we further consider the increasing importance of the arts in early-learning and cognitive development, we learn that numbers aren't anything, and that not everything of value can or should be measured in dollars and per cents.

Photo credit: World Economic Forum

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
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