"The danger is that Microsoft is using strategic monopolistic pricing in the education market, with the government’s assistance, to turn our state university systems into private workforce training programs for Microsoft."

--Nathan Newman

Summary: Innocence, greed or ignorance of politicians get exploited by Microsoft, which turns more citizens into Microsoft customers

"Elevate America" is a Microsoft programme we remarked on before [1, 2, 3], so we will not go into that again. But we are seeing more of the same in Iowa right now. Governor Chet Culve plays along with Microsoft's attempt to achieve state-funded/assisted Microsoft indoctrination.

Gov. Chet Culver and officials from Microsoft Corp. have reached an agreement calling for the company to provide more than 5,000 vouchers to help Iowa workers upgrade their technology skills.

This is just a drop in the bucket.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company will provide 5,700 vouchers to Iowa Workforce Development as part of a national effort to provide free or low-cost training to up to 2 million people during the next three years.

Microsoft also uses this to market itself as a friend of education. We covered this one week ago and here is the corresponding Microsoft press release:

In an effort to help higher education institutions support economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies, Microsoft Corp. has committed up to $50 million in higher education resources, training and certifications through the Microsoft Education Alliance Program agreement. As part of the agreement, the company will provide resources and tools for short-term work-force training and higher education enhancements.

Will people be taught GNU/Linux with these funds? It's a rhetorical question of course. The above is self-serving PR and self-serving 'donation'.

According to another new press release, Microsoft is exploiting the UN to play along with the same type of plot.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Microsoft Corp. today announced a joint task force to help higher education institutions worldwide meet the growing challenge of supporting economic stimulus efforts and work-force development strategies.

Bill Gates and the UN met last year. ⬆

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