Schools Matter: Bill Gates, the Oligarchs' Oligarch

Schools Matter: Bill Gates, the Oligarchs' Oligarch

Bill Gates, the Oligarchs' Oligarch

by Jim Horn

Beneath the creaky boyishness and slightly demented grin of Billy Gates beats the heart of a ruthless capitalist intent upon shaping the world in ways that make the future safe for the production of his line of cure-alls to the problems that he spends so much of his time marketing. After all, the inevitability of accepting the Gates-Broad-Walton-Fisher cure depends entirely upon the framing of the problem in ways that make such cures inevitable.


One of his favorite problems these days is disguised as "underperforming" schools and teachers, when, in fact, Gates's real problems, if acknowledged, would include the real costs of urban renewal, the threat of unionism, the potential costs of any social disorder, inefficiency, and anything less than an oversupply of politically-fumigated, obedient, trained technical workers and technocrats to manage them.


The current Gates solution: KIPP Schools, where untrained white female Ivy Leagues temps engage the