Summary: The latest dangerous hijack of education systems and the role played by creepy plutocrats with control over the press

THE world's richest people, including two crooks who sometimes meet privately in Seattle, are engaging in a fight to capture the minds of future generations.

According to this from a few days ago, Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch are tracking children:

theodp writes "Discussing U.S. education in his 2012 Annual Letter, Bill Gates notes the importance of 'tools and services [that] have the added benefit of providing amazing visibility into how each individual student is progressing, and generating lots of useful data that teachers can use to improve their own effectiveness.' Well, Bill is certainly putting his millions where his mouth is. The Gates Foundation has ponied up $76.5 million for a controversial student data tracking initiative that's engaged Rupert Murdoch's Wireless Generation to 'build the open software that will allow states to access a shared, performance-driven marketplace of free and premium tools and content.' If you live in CO, IL, NC, NY, MA, LA, GA, or DE, it's coming soon to a public school near you."

As Toby (IRC regular in Techrights) put it, "Gates [is]] palling around with Murdoch in schemes to destroy public" and the original articles say:

This week, the Wall St Journal reported that the NY Board of Regents approved the state's sharing of student and teacher information with a new national data base, to be funded by the Gates Foundation, and designed by News Corp's Wireless Generation.

All this confidential student and teacher data will be held by a private limited corporation, called the Shared Learning Collaborative LLC, with even less accountability, which in July was awarded $76.5 million by the Gates Foundation, to be spent over 7 months. According to an earlier NYT story, $44 million of this funding will go straight into the pockets of Wireless Generation, owned by Murdoch's News Corp and run by Joel Klein.

Mother Jones framed this a little differently by focusing only on Murdoch. Remember that Microsoft used Murdoch to attack Google. Recall what we wrote and also see earlier posts in this subject, e.g.:

• Microsoft Colludes Against Google
• Microsoft's Search Endeavours: Resorting to Bribery, Deception, and Intimidation
• Microsoft's Use of Bribes for Search, Only 4% of Microsoft/Razorfish Clients Used Microsoft Search
• Mainstream Media Finally Discovers Microsoft's Anti-Google AstroTurf
• Microsoft's Anti-Google Whisper Campaign

It is one set of criminals attracting another and it would be terribly misguided to think that Murdoch is more evil than Gates; he just does less reputation laundering for himself. Gates is meanwhile dismissing teachers who stand in his way and according to this relatively new report:

Sitting at the Burger King across the street from Newsome High School, Joseph Thomas knew his job was on the line.

It was Wednesday, the day Bill and Melinda Gates were in town. Thomas, 43, was ready to discuss why he was rejecting his peer evaluator under a new system funded by the Gates' foundation.

A social studies teacher through-and-through, Thomas considered what his students might learn if he went down for taking a stand. "It's civil disobedience, that's what it is," he said.

The district called it insubordination and suspended him with pay.

Thomas, upset that his evaluator comes from an elementary school background, is unusual in that he is speaking out against a process that is radically changing the way the district treats its teachers.

In another departure from the norm, a school board member last week delivered a harsh assessment of Empowering Effective Teachers, saying it demoralizes school employees.

For Thomas, a father of two married to an elementary school teacher, this is new territory. Usually his biggest concern is how to get 14-year-olds excited about Congress, politics and the Supreme Court.

His last Gates rating was about average. He has no disciplinary record. "They don't know me from Adam downtown," he said.

They do now.

Gates the bully (hiding behind others who do the bullying for him, as usual) and fellow plutocrats are taking over schools and in an academic paper titled "The Gates’ Foundation and the Future of U.S. Public Education: A Call for Scholars to Counter Misinformation Campaigns" (we make a local copy of the PDF) there are many lies being debunked after they got spread at great expense. Some teachers in Seattle tell us about "Anti Teachers’ Union Activity in the State of Washington" and Gates is mentioned to. "At this point," says one teacher, "it’s hard to tell where Chris is getting the funding for his new cause but…the League of Education Voters recently received $150,000 from the Gates Foundation “to launch a regional teacher advocacy group supportive of the Excellent Schools Now Coalition”, yet another faux roots group."

Do not let people who gained wealth and power by breaking the law just try to educate kids. Sociopathic behaviour is infectious. Teachers, students, and parents all oppose this agenda, but Gates, Murdoch the rogue "journalist" and their lobbyists lie to all of us for a living. Gates spends over a millions dollars a day just buying the press worldwide, so he needn't even depend on Murdoch. ⬆