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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Gates' Agenda and Money Shape City Schools (Gotham Gazette, Oct 2011)

Gates' Agenda and Money Shape City Schools (Gotham Gazette, Oct 2011):

Gates' Agenda and Money Shape City Schools

by Jane C. Timm
Oct 2011

gate foundation
Photo by Remy Steinegger
They do not teach or hold elected office but Bill and Melinda Gates wield enormous influence in New York City schools and in classrooms throughout the country.

At the start of NBC's Education Nation extravaganza last month host Brian Williams introduced and praised one of the funders of the event, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

For the reformers, teachers, parents and politicians at Education Nation, the refrain was a familiar one. The Gates Foundation, Williams continued, is "the largest single funder of education anywhere in the world. It's their facts that we're going to be referring to often to help along our conversation."

Indeed, with hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into our nation’s