Can Gates Remake K-12 Education?
Yesterday, Nick Anderson offered up a front-page story in The Washington Post on the influence and impact the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is having on education reform in the United States. For many, this was not new news (particularly since Libby Quaid and the Associated Press did a similar story about two years ago), but the size and scope was bound to attract attention. When we start to see the number of grants awarded, the total dollars doled out, and the influential individuals who have moved from Gates into either government or practitioner roles, and you start to see the possibility of the Gates Foundation and education improvement.
But Eduflack is struck by the same thinking that has dogged him for years. Anderson's well-written piece portrays the current K-12 public education environment and how the Gates Foundation needs to work within the confines of that system. It continues to be about refurbishing existing homes, not about tearing down and building new. And if anything was clear from the Anderson article, it is that Gates is in a position to do it its way, and not simply as we have always done.
So it had Eduflack going back into the archives to look at some past writing. In March of 2009, I opined on this
But Eduflack is struck by the same thinking that has dogged him for years. Anderson's well-written piece portrays the current K-12 public education environment and how the Gates Foundation needs to work within the confines of that system. It continues to be about refurbishing existing homes, not about tearing down and building new. And if anything was clear from the Anderson article, it is that Gates is in a position to do it its way, and not simply as we have always done.
So it had Eduflack going back into the archives to look at some past writing. In March of 2009, I opined on this