GATES, WALTON, AND BLOOMBERG PRESENT
THE BEST RESEARCH MONEY CAN BUY: A BILLIONAIRE'S GUIDE TO BUYING YOUR OWN FACTS
How a conveniently-timed "study" from a charter school marketing firm is being weaponized to privatize Washington's public schools—and why you should be very, very skeptical.
Act I: The Miracle Study That Arrived Just in Time
On March 18, 2026—with Washington's legislative session in its final, frantic weeks and the state staring down a $2.3 billion budget deficit—a miraculous study appeared like manna from heaven for the charter school lobby.
The report, titled "Turning the Tassel: What Gen Z Says About Life After High School Graduation," delivered astounding news: Charter school graduates in Washington earn a whopping $22,000 more per year than their public school peers. They're 30 percentage points more likely to own homes. They're living the American Dream while the rest of us are apparently living in a van down by the river.
The timing? Pure coincidence, surely.
The publisher? A communications and advocacy firm called Agency, Inc.—led by a former senior executive from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the industry's primary lobbying group.
The methodology? An online survey. You know, the kind you ignore in your spam folder.
The funders? The same billionaire foundations (Walton, Gates, Bloomberg) that have spent decades trying to dismantle public education and replace it with a market-based system where schools compete like fast-food franchises.
But sure, let's call it "research."
Act II: Who is Agency, Inc., and Why Should You Care?
Let's be clear about what Agency, Inc. actually is: It's a marketing firm.
Not a university. Not a government research body. Not an independent think tank. A for-profit communications company that specializes in "reputation management" and "high-impact storytelling" for the charter school industry.
Their CEO, Debbie Veney, spent years as a top executive at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools—the same organization that lobbies state legislatures to funnel public tax dollars into privately-managed charter schools. Now she runs a firm that produces "studies" designed to do exactly that.
This is like Philip Morris commissioning a study on the health benefits of smoking, except with better graphic design.
The Funding Ecosystem: A Cozy Little Oligarchy
Agency, Inc. doesn't operate in a vacuum. They're part of a well-oiled machine funded by:
- The Walton Family Foundation (Walmart heirs): Poured over $15 million into "education research and evaluation" in 2024-2025 alone
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Commissioned both Agency's narrative work AND Stanford's CREDO studies in Washington
- The City Fund: Started by billionaires John Arnold and Reed Hastings specifically to expand charter-style "portfolio" school models
- Bloomberg Philanthropies: Michael Bloomberg's personal piggy bank for urban charter expansion
Notice a pattern? The same tiny group of billionaires funds both the "academic" research (CREDO at Stanford) and the marketing campaigns (Agency, Inc.) that sell that research to the public.
It's a two-pronged attack: CREDO provides the "scientific" veneer, and Agency, Inc. turns it into clickbait headlines about homeownership and six-figure salaries.
Act III: The Methodology—Or, How to Lie With Statistics
Let's talk about how this "astounding" study was actually conducted, shall we?
Survey Data vs. Real Records
The Agency study is based on an online survey of 5,000 people conducted by The Harris Poll. Respondents self-reported their income and homeownership status.
Here's the problem: People lie. Especially on surveys about how successful they are. It's called "social desirability bias," and it's Statistics 101.
Real education research uses administrative data—actual tax records, property deeds, Social Security earnings matched to student IDs. That removes human error and the temptation to make yourself look good on paper.
But administrative data is expensive and time-consuming. And it might not give you the answer you're looking for.
Participation Bias: Who Actually Answers These Surveys?
Here's another fun fact: People who are successful (homeowners, high earners) are statistically much more likely to respond to surveys about their life achievements than people who are struggling, housing-unstable, or working multiple minimum-wage jobs.
So the study's "30% homeownership gap" might not be measuring school quality at all—it might just be measuring who bothered to click the survey link.
The "Motivated Parent" Problem
Students don't just randomly "end up" in charter schools. Their parents must:
- Research options
- Submit applications
- Navigate lottery systems
- Provide transportation (often across district lines)
- Stay engaged throughout enrollment
This is called self-selection bias, and it's the elephant in the room that Agency, Inc. conveniently ignores.
When researchers conduct lottery studies—comparing students who won a charter lottery to those who lost (meaning both groups had equally motivated parents)—the "astounding" achievement gaps often shrink dramatically or disappear entirely.
A 2020 Harvard/Princeton study using actual administrative data in Texas found that while some charter schools raised test scores, they had no significant impact on later earnings.
But that study didn't have a billionaire marketing budget.
Act IV: The Cream-Skimming Shell Game
Here's where things get really interesting.
Charter schools love to brag about their graduation rates and alumni success. But there's a dirty little secret: Not every student who starts 9th grade at a charter school makes it to graduation.
The Vanishing Students
Let's say 100 students enroll in 9th grade at a charter school. By senior year, only 60 remain. The other 40—often the students with the most severe disabilities, behavioral challenges, or housing instability—have been "counseled out" or left due to the school's strict discipline policies.
Those 40 students? They return to the public school district, which is legally required to educate every single child, no matter how expensive or difficult.
Now the charter school calculates its "97% graduation rate" based on the 60 students who stayed—the cream of the crop. Meanwhile, the public school's graduation rate is dragged down by the 40 students the charter couldn't or wouldn't serve.
When Agency, Inc. surveys "charter alumni," they're only surveying the survivors. The students who didn't make it? They're invisible in the data.
The Special Education Gap
Here's another tell: Special education enrollment rates.
Public school districts in Washington must serve students with every type of disability, including the most severe and expensive cases—students with profound cognitive disabilities, severe autism, complex medical needs.
Charter schools? They often have significantly lower percentages of students with high-cost disabilities. Not because they're legally allowed to discriminate (they're not), but because families of students with severe special needs quickly realize that the charter school doesn't have the resources or expertise to serve their child—so they return to the public system.
This allows charter schools to concentrate resources on the students most likely to achieve those "astounding" salary and homeownership outcomes.
Act V: The Legislative Shakedown
So why is this report being released right now, in mid-March 2026?
Because the Washington State Legislature is in session, and several critical bills are on the table:
SB 5442 & HB 1481: The "Fair Funding" Acts
These bills would give charter schools access to local enrichment levies—which can add up to $3,838 per student in some districts.
Currently, charter schools don't get levy funding because they're not part of the local school district. They're separately authorized and managed.
But the charter lobby is using the Agency study to argue: "Look! Our graduates earn $22,000 more! The state is losing money by not funding us equally!"
It's a brilliant rhetorical move: Turn a cost (giving charters more taxpayer money) into an investment (because they'll supposedly produce higher earners who pay more taxes).
Never mind that the study's methodology is garbage.
Reopening the Authorization Window
Washington's legal window to authorize new charter schools expired in April 2021, effectively capping the sector at its current size.
The charter lobby wants Governor Bob Ferguson and the legislature to reopen that window and allow for expansion.
The Agency study provides the emotional ammunition: "Don't deny students a path to homeownership!" (Actual talking point being used.)
Saving "Why Not You Academy"
Russell Wilson and Ciara's charter school, Why Not You Academy, is scheduled to close in June 2026 due to financial instability.
The Agency study acts as a public relations shield: "Don't let this school close! Think of all the future homeowners you're abandoning!"
It's disaster capitalism meets disaster PR.
Act VI: The Billionaire Education Oligarchy
Let's zoom out for a moment and look at the bigger picture.
For the past two decades, a small group of billionaires has been waging a coordinated campaign to privatize public education in America. Their strategy:
- Underfund public schools through tax cuts and austerity measures
- Declare a crisis when underfunded schools struggle
- Offer charter schools as the solution (conveniently managed by private companies)
- Fund research that makes charter schools look successful
- Use that research to lobby for more public funding for charters
- Repeat
The Walton Family Foundation alone has spent over $1 billion on charter school expansion since 2000. Bill Gates has spent hundreds of millions more. These aren't philanthropists—they're investors in a political project to dismantle one of America's last remaining public goods.
And they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They're doing it because:
- Privatization is profitable (for the management companies that run charter chains)
- Union-busting is profitable (charter teachers are rarely unionized)
- Real estate is profitable (charter schools often lease buildings from companies owned by their board members)
- Ideological control is valuable (private schools can teach whatever curriculum they want)
Act VII: What CREDO Actually Says (When You Read the Fine Print)
Here's the beautiful irony: Even CREDO—the Stanford research center funded by the same billionaires as Agency, Inc.—doesn't support the "astounding" claims in the Agency study.
CREDO's 2025-2026 update on Washington found that for the average student, charter school impact was "neutral" compared to similar district schools.
Let me repeat that: Neutral. As in, no significant difference.
CREDO did find gains for English Language Learners in charters. That's worth noting and studying further.
But the idea that charter schools are universally producing graduates who earn $22,000 more and own homes at rates 30 points higher? CREDO's own data doesn't support that.
Which is probably why the charter lobby needed to commission a marketing firm to produce a survey that would give them better headlines.
Act VIII: The Rebuttal (Or, What Real Researchers Are Saying)
Because the Agency study dropped literally today (March 18, 2026), formal peer-reviewed rebuttals are still being written. But education policy experts are already raising red flags:
From the National Education Policy Center (NEPC):
"This is marketing disguised as social science. The study selectively highlights gaps to create headlines that influence state funding debates, rather than providing a nuanced look at why some schools succeed while others fail."
From the Network for Public Education (NPE):
"Survey-based research cannot establish causality. The 'motivated parent' factor alone could explain the entire salary and homeownership gap without any difference in school quality whatsoever."
From Independent Researchers:
"When you use actual administrative data and control for selection bias, the 'astounding' charter advantage disappears. This has been shown repeatedly in lottery studies."
Conclusion: Follow the Money, Question the Narrative
So here's what we know:
✅ A marketing firm with deep ties to the charter lobby released a survey-based study with massive methodological problems
✅ The study was released at the exact moment the Washington Legislature is deciding whether to give charter schools hundreds of millions in new taxpayer funding
✅ The study is funded by the same billionaires who have spent decades trying to privatize public education
✅ The study's claims are contradicted by more rigorous research using actual administrative data
✅ The study ignores selection bias, attrition, and cream-skimming—the three biggest confounding factors in charter school research
This isn't research. It's propaganda with footnotes.
And if you're tired of billionaires buying their own facts to justify dismantling public institutions, you're not alone.
Join the Resistance: No Kings March & Protest – March 28, 2026
The "No Kings" movement—a coalition of labor unions, teachers, civil rights groups, and everyday people who are fed up with billionaire-first politics—is mobilizing.
Their message is simple: Our democracy is not for sale. Our schools are not for sale. Our future is not for sale.
What They're Fighting For:
- Fully funded public schools, not false "choice" schemes that drain resources
- An end to billionaire-funded "research" designed to justify privatization
- Protection of the Department of Education and federal funding for special education, rural schools, and class size reduction
- Accountability for legislators who take money from charter lobby groups
When: March 28, 2026
Where: Twin Cities (flagship event) and cities nationwide
If you're tired of watching billionaires like the Waltons, Gates, and Bloomberg use their fortunes to reshape public education in their image—while actual teachers, parents, and students are shut out of the conversation—this is your moment.
Because when the richest people in America can commission their own "studies," fund their own "research centers," and then use that manufactured evidence to lobby for laws that benefit them, we don't have a democracy.
We have kings.
And on March 28, we're reminding them: We don't do kings in America.
"Silence is not an option. We reject any attempt to cut funding for public education, because we know investing in our schools means investing in our future."
— No Kings Day Coalition
See you in the streets. 🪧
The No Kings Coalition's next major mobilization is March 28, 2026. Find events near you and learn how to safely participate at nokings.org. Remember: nonviolent action, de-escalation, and constitutional rights are our principles and our power.
Don’t miss the #NoKings Kick-off call on March 19th. Hear directly from movement leaders, organizers on the ground, and special guests as we discuss the vision, urgency, & moral imperative behind this national day of nonviolent action.
#NoKingsProtest #NoKingsMar28 #NoKingsInAmerica #NoKings
No Kings https://www.nokings.org/
Resource Guide & Community Response For No Kings Day — No Kings https://www.nokings.org/kyr
