You are lumping Roy and me together. If you interpret us as saying the same things that’s fine but be advised, I don’t speak for Roy or anyone else. I will sometimes offer my opinion as to what other FLOSS followers believe but that’s about it.

Fair enough criticism. My apologies… in general the folks who post comments here very much echo his claims and wording, to the point where I suspect some are his socks (though I have no strong evidence!). I apologize for grouping you in with them.

No of course you are not saying anyone lays all their cards on the table. Neither am I, that’s the point.

Again, fair enough.

My accusations are based on past actions and proclamations by Bill Gates himself and those close to him. There’s no crystal ball stuff going on here. Could Bill Gates change his colors? Sure, anything is possible. Maybe he’ll get struck by lightning and suffer a complete personality reversal.

I would agree it would be wise to be watchful – but that is true of any group. I can even go so far as to say it is wise to be extra watchful considering his history and his ties.

Show where he gets to pick the teachers…? I hope I never get to show you that or any of the other things. That’s where I stand on that issue.

I am looking to see where that is a part of the “plan”. So far I have seen this accusation repeatedly but no support. Now he does support merit pay, which is fine if you can find a reasonably fair way to measure who has “merit”. Basing it on test scores, though, is rather absurd – the *students* are the ones taking the tests, not the teachers. Yes, teachers influence their students, but they do not control them nor do they pick them. Should AP teachers get paid more? Why punish teachers be punished for working with the “slower” students? It makes no sense – there are just too many variables. It would be like paying programmers by how many lines of code they produce… it has been done and it is a *bad* idea.

Am I paranoid? Not yet.

Maybe not.

No of course you are not saying anyone lays all their cards on the table. Neither am I, that’s the point. My accusations are based on past actions and proclamations by Bill Gates himself and those close to him. There’s no crystal ball stuff going on here. Could Bill Gates change his colors? Sure, anything is possible. Maybe he’ll get struck by lightning and suffer a complete personality reversal. Show where he gets to pick the teachers…? I hope I never get to show you that or any of the other things. That’s where I stand on that issue.

Am I paranoid? Not yet.

Show where he gets to pick teachers.
Show where he gets to pick how they are trained.
Show where he gets to pick what materials they use.

Right now you have paranoid accusations. Can you get anything else to back those things you claim?

If there is any institution that should not become a monoculture it’s our education system. There would be no checks and balances, no second opinions and no comparisons.

We may be paranoid but our fear is based on Bill Gates past actions. He has never varied from his MO. If you wish to see the real Bill Gates then view his testimony on Judge Penfield Jackson’s witness stand. To the best of my knowledge that is the only time someone has been in a position of authority over him and asking serious questions. You can watch Bill Gates as he slowly crumbles into a fetal position. It’s an amazing piece of footage.

Yes, many people do opt to send their kids to private schools but that choice would be eliminated if Bill Gates gets his way. Every child would be taught by a corporate run tax paid school system. To put it another way, every child would attend a private school, some by choice, some not by choice. … It does seem counter intuitive to try to stop someone from spending millions of dollars on improving education. But Bill Gates is attempting to turn a state-run agenda-neutral institution into his private market place. Every school uses Microsoft computers and software. Every computer curriculum teaches Microsoft programing languages. Only Microsoft partners get a piece of the pie. But worst of all, children learn what the corporation deems best. And that will be what ever puts the corporation in the best light. It’s a nightmare in the making.

I would love to see support for this. If so, of course I am heavily against it.

Looking at the education section of the Gates Foundation site, I see only one reference to any software and it does not mention a company name that is preferred – and software is only one of many items listed as being important. Looking at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Education) I see nothing that supports your claims. In fact, one of the criticisms is that they support neighborhood schools *over* private schools, which directly contradicts the idea that he wants all schools to be private schools.

There seems to be plenty of room to disagree with the MGF education goals – but the complaints you and Roy speak about come across as paranoid fear and not realistic criticisms.

Yes, many people do opt to send their kids to private schools but that choice would be eliminated if Bill Gates gets his way. Every child would be taught by a corporate run tax paid school system. To put it another way, every child would attend a private school, some by choice, some not by choice.

You have never seen Bill Gates bribe anyone? Neither have I. I would expect that no one has ever seen Bill Gates bribe anyone. He does spend over a million dollars a day making sure he and any endeavor he’s involved in gets good press. That’s not called a bribe by the way. It’s called business… PR business.

His wife, Melinda, up until recently was on the board of directors of the Wall Street Journal. Do you think there was ever any investigative reporting done on The Gates Foundation while she was there? How about NPR, that bastion of unbiased reporting. Sorry, Microsoft is one of their primary advertisers. You’ll hardly hear Microsoft’s name associated with any account of malware ripping holes in the Internet or any serious in-depth look into Bill Gates activities. And on it goes. Bill Gates has so much money he can purchase advertising in every major paper, magazine, Web site and television station in the United States and have plenty left over to cover major media outlets over the rest of the World. But no, he doesn’t bribe anyone.

It does seem counter intuitive to try to stop someone from spending millions of dollars on improving education. But Bill Gates is attempting to turn a state-run agenda-neutral institution into his private market place. Every school uses Microsoft computers and software. Every computer curriculum teaches Microsoft programing languages. Only Microsoft partners get a piece of the pie. But worst of all, children learn what the corporation deems best. And that will be what ever puts the corporation in the best light. It’s a nightmare in the making.

There are public schools that are doing very poorly but there are also some that are outstanding. That’s all the information we need right there. Try to use the programs that work and avoid the ones that don’t. We don’t need to hand the entire education system over to a guy who never finished college.

For six hours a day, five days a week, your children are locked behind a door and taught by people who are qualified by the state you live in. Only the state has the key to that door.

Actually, as a parent you have the right to home school or to observe the school. When I taught in the K-12 system I encouraged parents to visit as often as they wanted.

Now think of giving the key to that education door to someone else, say, a private corporation.

Many parents opt to send their kids to a private school. If you are talking about public schools, however, they are not run by private corporations (in general, there may be some outsourcing).

FUD:

Bill Gates knows nothing about education and he is surrounded by yes men. Couple that with enough money to bribe the entire population of the United States and we are faced with a very dangerous situation.

I have never seen any bribe by him. I did have MS “wine and dine” me as they tried to sell me products, as I have had Cisco and many other companies do (Cisco was the most extreme I have encountered).

As I said above, I can see being against the specifics of what Bill Gates says and does in terms of education – there are many valid “takes” on the subject. But the general goal of improving the education of US students is something I wish more people would back. It is a shame to see folks fight against it based on their own fears.

For six hours a day, five days a week, your children are locked behind a door and taught by people who are qualified by the state you live in. Only the state has the key to that door. You trust the state because the people who run it are elected by you and the other people in your state. That gives you some control over how they govern you and choose the people who teach your children.

Now think of giving the key to that education door to someone else, say, a private corporation. You have been removed by another layer between you and your child and you have just lost control over what goes on behind that door.

Bill Gates knows nothing about education and he is surrounded by yes men. Couple that with enough money to bribe the entire population of the United States and we are faced with a very dangerous situation.

I read an article by Preston Gralla recently that said Bill Gates deserves more adoration than Steve Jobs. Adoration? Really? There was one 20th Century leader who was adored by his countrymen. He met with a violent end. Leaders should be respected and criticized without fear of reprisal but adoration should be left for movie stars.

I wouldn’t consider Bill Gates a leader but I think he dearly wants to be one. He often presents himself as an expert in areas he knows nothing about like he does with education. He once gave a lecture on supercomputers at a convention. He went on and on as if he built one yesterday. Putting Bill Gates’ software on supercomputer hardware is like putting molasses in the crankcase of a Formula One race car. It’s the same old myth; If you have tons of money, then you must be an expert on everything. And Bill Gates is riding that wave for all it’s worth.