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I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted
Fortunately, Bill Gates does know when he’s being fooled.

American Spectator
Liv Finne

Late last year, billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced his foundation would spend another $1.7 billion on public education initiatives over the next five years.

Toward the end of his announcement, though, Mr. Gates said something revealing. He reconfirmed his belief in central planning, still looking for reforms that “scale out,” as he put, to affect all schools. But some harsh and costly experiences in the politics of public education have taught him that “it is easy to fool yourself.” Here is how he describes his experiences:

The model that always excites me is that if you can get a pilot [project] to work well, then if you can scale it up and you can see if it sustains itself. And it is easy to fool yourself because whenever you do a pilot you are often getting the best schools, the best teachers, even the students who get engaged in these programs.

So it is easy to fool yourself that something works better than you think it does, or that getting it adopted by all the teachers and all the schools that that will be very straightforward.

We’ve even seen in some cases, like teacher evaluation, even in our pilot locations that sustaining it for the long term, when there’s changes in leadership, the union, the school board, the superintendent, that that can be very difficult. So we don’t want to underestimate this challenge of taking something that looks very good in the small and saying OK the easy step is to get that out to all their students.


Over the years, due to the generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates, their foundation has spent billions of dollars in efforts to “scale out” various ideas in an effort to improve schools. They clearly mean well. They want all children, especially low-income and minority children, to get a great education.

But their well-intended push to get monopoly public schools to work hasn’t panned out so well. In 2000, the Gates Foundation promoted small schools as the way to improve student achievement. Nine years and $2 billion later, Foundation officials announced the idea had “fallen short,” and they quietly ended the effort.

Next, the Foundation induced states to participate in the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top program, by requiring administrators to accept the Common Core curriculum as a condition of receiving federal education dollars.

The top-down initiative faced fierce criticism from teachers, parents, and independent experts. After devoting over $700 million to the idea, the Foundation saw states dropping or revising Common Core to make it less restrictive.

Experts noted Common Core had lowered learning expectations for students in math, reading, and science. Teachers said the teacher evaluation system was unfair and technocratic, and missed key factors, like classroom morale, that contribute significantly to student learning.

The same occurred with the PARCC and the SBAC, two high-stakes tests promoted by the Gates Foundation. Thousands of students opted out of the test, with the full support of parents and teachers. Ultimately public officials conceded that mandatory high-stakes testing is not an effective tool in promoting learning.

The Foundation is still nominally supporting the lagging Common Core effort but has stopped spending money to enforce teacher evaluations.

The problem is that top-down reform efforts, even ones funded by someone as respected as Bill Gates, inevitably get bogged down in bureaucratic resistance and union politics.

Rather than propping up a monopoly system, some philanthropists have worked to help children individually, with educational decisions being made by parents. One example is the successful Children’s Scholarship Fund, founded by Theodore J. Forstmann and John T. Walton. It provides low-income families with money to pay tuition at private schools. Since 1998, the Fund has given out $741 million, opening doors and enhancing the lives of nearly 166,000 children.

The secret is that this kind of philanthropy is family-focused, voluntary, and opt-in. It respects and supports the decisions parents make on behalf of their own children, without pandering to a centralized monopoly hedged in by career administrators, powerful unions, and political infighting.

Bill Gates himself sees the potential of this approach. He has wisely increased funding for public charter schools and for research in other education innovations. If he is looking for learning reforms that are effective, sustainable, and scalable, this is it. The formula for success is: Trust parents; avoid politics.

Smart philanthropy supports choices for families, either directly or with far-sighted reforms, like charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts, that move control over students and funding from the central office to the kitchen table.

Link




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Now in Florida
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As smart as Gates may be, ideological bias is just nearly impossible to overcome. He will never see the real problem because it would explode his world view, even beyond the education field. He will keep spending money and trying different ideas that maintain centralized control and keep the unions intact.
 
Posts: 6061 | Location: FL | Registered: March 09, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I buy in to the JALLEN plan for the education system as it exists today.

I keep hope that President Trump will get around to fixing or eliminating the department of education sometime in his 8 years.
 
Posts: 3953 | Location: UNK | Registered: October 04, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Writer by profession,
smartass by the
grace of God.


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I don't see that happening, unless the entire Dept of Education is dissolved.


(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")
 
Posts: 617 | Location: Beaverton, OR | Registered: April 19, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
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quote:
Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
As smart as Gates may be, ideological bias is just nearly impossible to overcome. He will never see the real problem because it would explode his world view, even beyond the education field. He will keep spending money and trying different ideas that maintain centralized control and keep the unions intact.


You don’t do what he has done over the last 40 years by consistently ignoring stupid mistakes or ops that’s aren’t working. You work an idea, observe the result and change as needed. He is swimming uphill with these people, an entire “industry” with solidly ensconced unions solidly behind them.

I favor closing the public schools and going to private establishments, but that isn’t going to happen all at once, if ever. You have to eat the elephant a bite at a time. Moreover, as Churchill claimed, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else.”




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Indeed...I was reading this and my eyes when right to this sentence...


"that sustaining it for the long term, when there’s changes in leadership, the union, the school board, the superintendent"

As long as there are unions in education there will never be meaningful reform or improvement

quote:
Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
As smart as Gates may be, ideological bias is just nearly impossible to overcome. He will never see the real problem because it would explode his world view, even beyond the education field. He will keep spending money and trying different ideas that maintain centralized control and keep the unions intact.


---------------------------------------
It's like my brain's a tree and you're those little cookie elves.
 
Posts: 3625 | Location: Cary, NC | Registered: February 26, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Gates isn't the only billionaire to fail at reforming American's failing public schools. Mark Zuckerburg and Cory Booker tried a hand at it in Newark:

"Russakoff, a former Post reporter, devoted the next several years to real-time reporting about what happened to Zuckerberg’s $100 million and another $100 million in matching funds. The effort she relates in her resulting book, "The Prize," is a far more complex and humbling endeavor than anticipated, a case study in the difficulty of translating good intentions into concrete results.

As told by Russakoff, it is a story of well-meaning reformers so convinced of the correctness of their approach, and the urgency of their task, that they failed to do the hard work of winning the support of a wary community, while spending millions on $1,000-a-day consultants.

It is a story of politicians, especially then-Mayor Booker, with more ambition than attention span, leaving behind unfinished business — and students lagging years below grade level — as they climb the political ladder.

It is a story of the earnest young billionaire whose conviction that the key to fixing schools is paying the best teachers well collided with the reality of seniority protections not only written into teacher contracts but also embedded in state law."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cne32507,
 
Posts: 2520 | Location: High Sierra & Low Desert | Registered: February 03, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
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quote:
Rather than propping up a monopoly system, some philanthropists have worked to help children individually, with educational decisions being made by parents. One example is the successful Children’s Scholarship Fund, founded by Theodore J. Forstmann and John T. Walton. It provides low-income families with money to pay tuition at private schools. Since 1998, the Fund has given out $741 million, opening doors and enhancing the lives of nearly 166,000 children.

The secret is that this kind of philanthropy is family-focused, voluntary, and opt-in. It respects and supports the decisions parents make on behalf of their own children, without pandering to a centralized monopoly hedged in by career administrators, powerful unions, and political infighting.

Bill Gates himself sees the potential of this approach. He has wisely increased funding for public charter schools and for research in other education innovations. If he is looking for learning reforms that are effective, sustainable, and scalable, this is it. The formula for success is: Trust parents; avoid politics.

Smart philanthropy supports choices for families, either directly or with far-sighted reforms, like charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts, that move control over students and funding from the central office to the kitchen table.

Yes. The formula for success is: Trust parents; avoid politics.
... and you can't do that in a government run system.

It would be nice, and very helpful, if a guy like Bill Gates came around to believing in individual choice and free markets, the ideas that made him rich.

But I agree with JALLEN. It won't be easy, it will only happen in small steps, and may not happen at all.

quote:
I favor closing the public schools and going to private establishments, but that isn’t going to happen all at once, if ever. You have to eat the elephant a bite at a time. Moreover, as Churchill claimed, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else.”



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23949 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
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It may be, like several of my bosses sometimes said, “it sure is hard to find good help these days.”

All the advice he is getting maybe polluted from the same source.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Two words.
School vouchers.
The weak schools (and teachers) will pretty quickly be identified and weeded out thru natural selection. No pun intended.
 
Posts: 590 | Registered: December 28, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Ice Cream Man
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+1 on dissolving all public schools, and just offering tuition vouchers.
 
Posts: 5706 | Location: Republic of Ice Cream, Miami Beach, FL | Registered: May 24, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Ask Corey "Look at Me!" Booker what happened to the $100 Million Dollar gift given Newark (He was Mayor, then) Given by Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder)
Where's the money????? 'Cause the poor kids aren't any smarter...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: downtownv,


_________________________

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Posts: 8318 | Location: 18 miles long, 6 Miles at Sea | Registered: January 22, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The problem with public schools is NOT money, but that is what they want you to think, so you will continue voting for levee after levee.


NRA Life Endowment member
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Posts: 2794 | Location: Ohio | Registered: December 18, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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How can one learn how to think from people who only want to teach you what to think?
 
Posts: 2538 | Location: KY | Registered: October 20, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I wonder what the Total Cost is year to year to teach a child today in America?


____________________________________________________

The butcher with the sharpest knife has the warmest heart.
 
Posts: 13386 | Location: Bottom of Lake Washington | Registered: March 06, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
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quote:
Originally posted by braillediver:
I wonder what the Total Cost is year to year to teach a child today in America?


One guess is found here. Link

quote:
In 2014, the U.S. spent an average of $12,157 per student on elementary and secondary education, over 30% more than the OECD average of $9,419.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
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quote:
Originally posted by senza nome:
How can one learn how to think from people who only want to teach you what to think?


Exactly.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15181 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The only way to reform an organization is to destroy it.

V.
 
Posts: 328 | Location: Pacific NW | Registered: April 09, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Gates was very smart to recognize the Disk Operating System(DOS) had potential and wily enough to buy it from its inventor and license it to IBM. He was very effective at promoting DOS and smart enough to make it an open system, available to any software developer, making DOS an almost universal platform.

He is too dense to understand the free market in which his company has flourished; evolving and improving because of competition. He hasn't figured out how and why a federal government monopoly cannot succeed, no matter how much money is thrown at it.

God makes us all smart in different ways. Gates' hubris is blinding him to his Don Quixote quest to save a doomed system.
 
Posts: 8603 | Registered: September 26, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
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Due Process
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quote:
Originally posted by TigerDore:
Gates was very smart to recognize the Disk Operating System(DOS) had potential and wily enough to buy it from its inventor and license it to IBM. He was very effective at promoting DOS and smart enough to make it an open system, available to any software developer, making DOS an almost universal platform.

He is too dense to understand the free market in which his company has flourished; evolving and improving because of competition. He hasn't figured out how and why a federal government monopoly cannot succeed, no matter how much money is thrown at it.

God makes us all smart in different ways. Gates' hubris is blinding him to his Don Quixote quest to save a doomed system.


He was smart, and lucky, enought to have IBM license it instead of buying the rights for $200,000. Why wasn’t he smart enough to realize 65k wasn’t big enough?




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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