Here Bill, all wrapped up

The statement at the top of the Missouri Watchdog Website Reads

"Here's an idea. Why doesn't the country fire Arne Duncan, get rid of the Department of Education and just hire Bill Gates? He's self-funding, and he's doing everything anyway."--Laurie Rogers

Since January when Sandra first started work on her Education Reform Blogs, Bill Gates' name keeps showing up everywhere.  He was there when Sandra posted her blog on Data Mining Children way back in early January, he created the programs for the project.

A few days later she posted on the Eli Board Foundation's efforts to train and  place School Superintendents on local school boards. In order to make the deal more attractive to the school boards, the foundation would subsidize the new superintendents salary or a couple years.  It turned out Bill Gates was in the background subsidizing the Eli Board foundation..

A little latter it started becoming obvious he was behind the teacher merit pay plans the state legislatures all shoved through this spring so they could get Obama's Race To The Top money..  All those tests that would be required to grade the teachers will end up being administered and scored by Bill Gate's close friends and business associates at Pearson Testing. Three guesses who owns the programs they use..

When the discussion turned to Nationalized Common Core Testing and Nation wide  Standardized Testing Program.. It seems Bill Gates, or his employees may have written the programs original guidelines.  When the Department of Education awarded contracts to two consortia to actually develop the programs, there was Bill Gates with his new business partner Pearson Testing.

If you even need to ask who is behind and who stands to profit from the Virtual Charter School proposals, you're not paying attention...

In more emails than I can count, step by step Sandra and I have been discussing this privately, at first it seemed so far fetched it had to be nuts.  We've both been reluctant to start talking about a conspiricy to Nationalize Public Education and then hand it over to a private company to manage.. but that seems to be the plan.  A couple days ago Sandra sent me a link to susanohanian.org

Sandra and I aren't the only ones thinking along those lines. 

Take your time, read the quotes slowly, then go back and read the entire article when you have the time..

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The F-word of Ed Reform — and its unholy alliance with right-wing union-busting

I am very grateful to Sue P. for writing about this. Every time one of the so-called progressive groups rails on the Republicans, I'm sitting here shouting, "And what about the Democrats?" Fear of Republicans shouldn't keep people in the laps of Democrats. We have only one major political party in this country: the corporate party.

by Sue P.

Apr 7, 1933 Nazi governors appointed to rule the German states. End of federalism.

May 1, 1933 Trade union offices are stormed by SA.

May 2, 1933 Trade unions banned from Germany.

May 6, 1933 DAF Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front) is created.-- (Source: Nazi Revolution, Wikipedia)

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"There is a word for this kind of anti-democratic collaboration between business and government, but we haven't used it much since the 1940s: fascism."-- Diane Ravitch

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Union-busting has traditionally been considered the blood sport of right-wing corporatists. But Democrats, including the current president, have joined the fray.

There is no greater example of bipartisan union-busting and attacks on middle and working class citizens right now than what's being done in the name of "education reform."

All the celebrity names of corporate ed reform are collaborating in this pile-on: Arne Duncan, Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee, Jeb Bush, Bill Gates and his foundation's "ed reform" grantees. The Eli Broad-trained school superintendents are indoctrinated with this cut-throat corporation uber alles mindset. New Mayor Rahm Emanuel is squawking the same anti-labor dogma in Chicago ( Emanuel backs crackdown on teachers, Chicago Sun-Times). And one of the key targets is teachers.

READ THE REST

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Gates spends millions to sway public on ed reform

Ohanian Comment: Valerie Strauss has provided an invaluable service here. Read ALL the hot links.

If you ever doubted that Bill Gates runs education policy in this country--read the confidential letter sent out to candidates for the job of CEO of this new Gates enterprise. The letter includes the grant proposal, written Aug. 21, 2009. The background of the people involved in this proposal is significant:

Amy Wilkins, chair of the search committee, is at Education Trust. Before that, she worked at Children's Defense Fund and for the Democratic National Committee.

John Deasy, then-Deputy Director of Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led "program work on effective teaching"; now superintendent Los Angeles Unified School District. Put his name into a 'search' on this site for a run-down of his checkered history. In this document he is lauded as a "national leader" in a teacher pay-for-performance plan.

Sandra Licon is Special Assistant to Education Director, US Program, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before that, she was a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Fellow where she worked at the Education Trust and later with Senator Edward Kennedy's staff on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Before that, she was a Program Director with Teach for America. She has an MA in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

See how interconnected these attack dogs are?
These people will lead the charge on convincing the media and therefore the public that the Gates-run $350 million teacher deformation projects in Memphis, Pittsburgh, Hillsborough, and a group of Los Angeles charter schools are the way to go in bringing teachers to their knees as compliant workers in the Global Economy. Only they don't phrase it quite like that. In Gates-speak, it's known as "teacher effectiveness."

Every time you see a media story about this supposedly local effort to improve teacher effectiveness, you should write a letter asking that they reveal that Bill Gates is using his enormous wealth to pull the puppet strings.

 
Reader Comment: What do you expect? With no facts or bona fide research to back up his proposals, and a record of failure on what he has tried, he doubles down on crazy and goes straight for the propaganda method to impose his insanity on the nations children. He just proved that he is absolutely clueless with his idea of increasing class sizes (among other things), and so has to spin his wares like an insane top to gain any traction at all. We are not fooled. Do us all a favor and go fix the Windows OS so we don't have to do patches anymore.

Reader Comment: In 2006, staffers at the Texas Education Agency (TEA) brought significant concerns to TEA's Office of Inspector General regarding a Gates consultant, “public-private partnerships,” no-bid contracts, conflict-ridden subcontractors, and the evasion of state legislative policies using state discretionary grant funds. The Gates consultant obtained contracts for his ex-wife and worked to influence state policies regarding discretionary grants and contracts.

The TEA OIG report is a MUST READ:

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/pdf/06/062807_OIG_Report.pdf [pdf file]

"Bill Gates wants his agenda to be presented to these sorts of groups. The Gates Foundation Consultant described the subcontractor’s work to include integrating Gates Foundation into articles, host panels, identify keynote speakers, and find organizations through which Gates agenda can be presented." (pg. 17)

Josh Benton, Dallas Morning News reported on the influence of Gates Foundation workers in June 2007.
http://www.clipfile.org/2007/06/28/902/

By Valerie Strauss

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is spending at least $3.5 million to create a new organization whose aim is to win over the public and the media to its market-driven approach to school reform, according to the closely held grant proposal.

The organization is tentatively called "Teaching First," and already has a chief executive officer: Yolie Flores, a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, who has championed such issues as public school choice and teacher effectiveness. Flores did not immediately return phone calls for comment. A Gates foundation spokesman said she would take over the job fulltime when her board term is up in June.

READ THE REST

— Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Answer Sheet

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/gates-spends-millions-to-sway.html

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Gates to help schools adopt common core standards

Ohanian Comment: The Gates Foundation is announcing on Wednesday that it will be investing $20 million in game-based learning and other tools to help the new national education standards into the classroom.

There is sure to be a home edition of these games--so that hyperactive parents can check up on their kids' mastery of "The Vicar of Wakefield," Roman numerals, and other need-to-know material for becoming workers in the Global Economy.

by The Associated Press

SEATTLE —

The Gates Foundation is announcing on Wednesday that it will be investing $20 million in game-based learning and other tools to help the new national education standards into the classroom.

The foundation wants to help teachers engage students in learning the challenging new standards being adopted by more than 40 states.

The foundation says some Web-based games and social-networking platforms will be available for any teacher to use for free. They will include video games that build proficiency in math, reading and science, as well as a new game platform that can be used for various subjects.

Wednesday's announcement also includes money for Web-based classes aligned to the national standards. Game developers and curriculum writers from around the world are involved in the project.

— Associated Press
Seattle Times

2011-04-27

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014888644_apusgatesfoundationeducation1stldwritethru.html?syndication=rss

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This entire thing is being done largely through the regulatory process.  If Obama gets his way Congress will pass legislation giving board powers to the Department of Education.  The Department will then write the regulations that allow it to do what it's already in the process of doing.  By enacting Obama's Bill Gate's education plans the states have surrendered local control of the education system to DC Bureaucrats and Bill Gates..  All local government is left with is the cost.

Clearly this entire scheme has been carefully designed to circumvent the Constitution, Bill Gates has spared no expense when it comes to convincing state legislatures it's in their best interest.  

Cynical old SOB that I am, I can't help but wonder how he convinced Arme Duncan and Barack Obama it's in their best interests