Bill Gates Passing Out More Bribes in Seattle

[Hannah Bell]

For anyone out there who still doesn’t believe that Bill Gates is not pulling the strings in Seattle to get his way with charter schools, check out his latest donations.

Amount: $40,000 given to the League of Education Voters “to support a series of education-related speakers in Seattle”.

And who were those speakers? Kevin Johnson who spoke about how wonderful charter schools are, Richard Barth with KIPP Schools, a charter franchise, Steve Barr, founder of Green Dot Charter Schools and of course, Adam Porsch from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who moderated the discussion. Was that rigged or what?

Amount: $105,000 given to the League of Education Voters in October, 2010 “to support raising awareness of educational attainment issues in King County”.

Like…Teach for America and charter schools.

Check out their blog. It is an advertisement for all things ed reform and all things that Bill Gates thinks is best for the rest of us.

And now the coup d’etat.

Amount: $235,000 given to the League of Education Voters in October, 2010
“to develop a network of teachers in Seattle Public Schools who are informed about and actively supportive of district education reform”.

http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/bill-gates-is-at-it-again-in-seattle/


In other news, the Republican Party is doing surveys in Washington state: I've gotten two calls since the election. The purpose? My guess is they're gathering information to better target their appeals for the next election. We've still got two democratic senators & a democratic governor.

[Kolesar]

1. Are you a teacher?

DU has a lot of posts that are skeptical of charter schools by many posters. The issue needs more focus. I heard a DUer bitching about John Legend at the Colbert March because he sings at charter school functions. That is off message.

Ohio's new gov is Mr. Budget Hawk, since we have an 8 Billion dollar shortfall. I am going to write to him and tell him to axe state funding for charter schools.

[Hannah Bell]

2. no, i just despise the oligarch bill gates.

[Kolesar]

3. He didn't start from humble origins either

His mother had connections that enabled him to pitch his operating system to IBM.

MSDOS was an imitation of CP/M.

[Hannah Bell]

4. his great-grandfather & grandfather were bankers -- in the national city bank orbit,

predecessor of citibank, the rockefeller chain.

he isn't what his pr makes him out to be. there's a reason his mother had those connections with att, it's old money & high-level ruling class connections.

[Kolesar]

5. To his credit, Gates funds National Public Radio

Which is good because I don't. I shifted my $120 annual contribution from WKSU to candidates after NPR's biased coverage of the invasion of Iraq. I told the station about it, and quit getting renewal mailings instantly.

[Hannah Bell]

6. that's a bribe, not funding. gates never funded anything without a quid pro quo.

[Kolesar]

7. I notice a lot of "free publicity" for electronic products on NPR

Ironically, much of it is for Apple iPhones or iPads, or iDontknowwhat. I try to ignore them.

Don't hear much about that antitrust case from the 1990s anymore. Judge Jackson.

George Lucas Edutopia sponsors NPR. There is a charter school in Harlem that gets free publicity on 60 Minutes every year. 60 Minutes is my favorite news TV show now that Bill Moyers and NOW is gone. In the mornings, I listen to www.billpressshow.com

ok, I kicked your thread plenty!

[Hannah Bell]

8. have you noticed any programming on education policy, pharma or genetic engineering?

because those are the areas bill's interested in these days.

ms is passe.

[madrchsod]

9. good luck.. i heard that he`s going to bust the union and.....

go to regional school boards ,and privatize as many schools as possible. that`s on top of killing the rail project.

[stray cat]

10. What have you done to help inner city students?

[MineralMan]

11. I don't know, Hannah...

Bill Gates, or the foundation, gives money to groups according to its particular ideas. That's not bribery. It's just donation. Whether or not I agree with the goals of the groups his donations go to, it is absolutely his right to donate to whomever he thinks support his views. To call such donations "bribes" is patently unfair. What benefit does he get from them? I can't see any. He has tons of money, as we all know, and is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of Microsoft. These days, he's giving money to all sorts of causes. That you do not share his ideas does not make those donations "bribes."

[Hannah Bell]

12. they're bribes.