Is It Time to Escort Bill Gates Out of Our Schools?
American constitutional democracy seeks a balance between the empowerment of individuals and the checks and balances necessary to protect the rights of the community. Bill Gates, like so many other billionaires, does not seem to respect the wisdom of poet Robert Frost. "Good fences make good neighbors."
Post-World War II prosperity and freedom was based in no small part on "firewalls." Unbreachable barriers were supposed to separate the investment side of banks and their customers' savings accounts. The wall between the newsroom and the business operations of newspapers was sacrosanct. Labor earned many protections separating the Human Resources departments' agendas and workers' rights to their personal opinions and for asserting their democratic rights. Medical regulations protect personal privacy.
Post-World War II prosperity and freedom was based in no small part on "firewalls." Unbreachable barriers were supposed to separate the investment side of banks and their customers' savings accounts. The wall between the newsroom and the business operations of newspapers was sacrosanct. Labor earned many protections separating the Human Resources departments' agendas and workers' rights to their personal opinions and for asserting their democratic rights. Medical regulations protect personal privacy.
And, medical ethics prevent health providers from experimenting on children without informed and explicit permission by parents. Corporate reformers have been unique in their propensity to roll the dice and gamble on policies that often cause severe damage to children. No other institution would be as dismissive as school reformers have been of the principle of First Do No Harm.
It is not just in education where corporations seek to tear down those fences. Checks on the flow of information are also checks on their cash flow. Whether they are opposed by Paul Volker, Elizabeth Warren or teachers, elites are notoriously impatient with efforts to regulate the flow of their data, their capital, or their political power.
When the Gates Foundation first became involved in education, it could be argued, they were not necessarily unneighborly. They should have taken the time to communicate with educators before jumping into their expensive small schools initiative. But, many of its first contributions were beneficial.
The Billionaires Boys Club was notoriously impatient, however. They were not willing to earn a seat at the head of the table. Corporate reformers quickly concluded that it was necessary to break eggs, as they saw it, to make omelets. They called it "disruptive innovation." Destroy local school boards, university education departments, and the power of unions, and "transformational change" would presumably occur.
So, before long, Gates and the other elites replaced win-win policies, that teachers would have welcomed, with metrics for reward and punishment. For their policy preferences to win, others had to lose.
Gates and Arne Duncan were at the forefront of tearing down the walls that Is It Time to Escort Bill Gates Out of Our Schools? | John Thompson: