NYT's Gates Piece Got My Key Point Wrong
by Frederick M. Hess • May 26, 2011 at 9:40 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareI was disappointed by the page one New York Times story on the Gates Foundation that my friend, NYTreporter Sam Dillon, penned last Sunday. The much-discussed, rather critical account on the Gates Foundation's role in K-12 schooling, is something I would've expected to like, but I found the treatment of my own contribution to reflect a broader problem with the storyline.
I went back and forth on whether to address it. But given that the article, by zooming in on Gates, masked larger questions about the dynamics of edu-philanthropy, I figured it might be worth clarifying the larger point. After hearing from a number of individuals who clearly thought I meant something other than what I said, I decided, "What the heck."
A crucial point in the NYT story was the contention that the Gates Foundation is (cue Dr. Evil finger-to-lip gesture) scheming to influence education policy, and that they're alternately buying up or intimidating
