NonProfit Quarterly: Is Bill Gates Ever Capable of Admitting He Was Wrong?
Ruth McCambridge, editor-in-chief of the NonProfit Quarterly, wonders why Bill Gates continues to pour new money into his failed initiatives. Is it because he can never say he was wrong? Actually, he did admit he was wrong in 2008, when he pulled the plug on his $2 billion bet on breaking up big high schools into small high schools. There may have been some positive results, but he wanted better test scores and when he didn’t get them, he deep-fixed the whole idea.
McCambridge was annoyed to see that Gates is still offering grants to anyone who might breathe life into the Common Core standards.
She read Nicholas Tampio’s book Common Core: National Education Standards and the Threat to Democracy, and she was convinced that the Common Core is beyond salvation. Despite the multiple rejections of the Common Core, Gates won’t let it go. He just gave $225,000 to the New York State Board of Regents to advertise the value of common standards (read: Common Core).
Getting a grant of $225,000 from Gates is like getting a tip of $10 from an ordinary person. It is small change, crumbs from his table. It won’t buy anything. It certainly won’t derail the parents who hate Common Core and the related testing.
Back when Common Core was first released, it was nearly impossible to find any organization that had not collected large sums from the Gates Foundation to promote the Common Core. Reporters commented that they couldn’t find anyone to interview who was not on the receiving end of Gates money.
There is an expression in Yiddish: Gournish helpf’em. That is not a literal CONTINUE READING: NonProfit Quarterly: Is Bill Gates Ever Capable of Admitting He Was Wrong? | Diane Ravitch's blog
