Bill Gates Foundation allotted 2 million to advertise Waiting for Superman.

[madfloridian]

How can public education advocates beat money like that?

Answer: They really can't.

Bill Gates, the West Coast Promo Man

From the Gates Foundation website:

Participant Media, LLC
Date: August 2010
Purpose: to execute a social action campaign that will complement Paramount’s marketing campaign of Waiting for Superman
Amount: $2,000,000
Term: 7 months
Topic: Advocacy & Public Policy
Region Served: North America, Global
Program: United States
Grantee Location: Beverly Hills, California

http://www.participantmedia.com/

[YOY]

1. Nothing like a fake grassroots movement...

n/t

[MineralMan]

2. Are you suggesting that the Bill Gates Foundation should not

be allowed to donate to organizations of which you disapprove? Truly?

Sorry, but that's not how it works. Whether I agree with the donation or disagree with it, that foundation can donate as it pleases to whomever it pleases, except for political campaigns. This donation is to promote a movie. Perfectly OK to donate to such a thing, whether I agree or disagree with the donation. It's hardly a secret donation, or given under the table. You don't like it. OK, you don't like it. Your choice, just as it is the choice of the Gates Foundation to make the donation. America's great, huh?

If that's not what you're suggesting, what are you suggesting?

[madfloridian]

6. Whoa there.

I think you need to calm down.

I just realize that I am on the losing side, and I admit it.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

29. Are you suggesting that billionaires with no expertise in education

should influence our public school system because they have the money?

[Joe Fields]

70. I've noticed little expertise within the system. lol

[Joe Fields]

69. Wow, censoring opposing viewpoints now, are we? How progressive.

[JackRiddler]

11. No, obviously the suggestion is to run the whole lot of billionaires through the guillotine. Twice.

Happy?

I thank MadFloridian for the informative post, in the spirit of disclosure essential to democracy.

[Donnachaidh]

14. if it sharpens the blade for the next one, why not?

Some of us on the ground don't suffer from wealth envy. :eyes:

[joeybee12]

60. I think she's pointing out the scam that's going on here...nt

[Canuckistanian]

83. What's with you people and "dissaproving of donations"

Of course it's legal.

And rich people can spend money however they like. In fact, I APPROVE of rich people spending money.

It doesn't mean we unquestioningly support their INTENTIONS or OUTCOMES.

This IS an opinion board, is it not?

[sabrina 1]

94. It isn't the donation, it's the influence that that donation brings with

it. What is Gates getting in return for his money?

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. How many hundreds of millions of dollars is the National Education Association's annual budget?

:shrug:

[MineralMan]

4. Good job on the correction....

joke deleted.

[EFerrari]

24. What was the correction? I missed that part. n/t

[EFerrari]

23. And what portion is allocated to a response to this film --

that's what you intended to ask, right?

:shrug:

[Hannah Bell]

34. NEA's operating budget is $150 million. That's $55/member, $3 million/state.

NEA represents 2.7 million workers.

Let's compare that to Billy. Billy represents the wishes of one person -- Billy. Or maybe two people, if you include his buddy Warren.


The foundation spent ALMOST $400 MILLION TO INFLUENCE US EDUCATION POLICY IN 2009.

http://gateskeepers.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2010/9/10/4626239.html


AND BILL IS JUST ONE OF A NUMBER OF BILLIONAIRES SPENDING TO INFLUENCE EDUCATION POLICY.

ALL OF WHOM SPEND MORE THAN NEA DOES.

NEA's entire lobbying/influence budget is about $26 million, or <$10/member.

[WestSeattle2]

67. Actually, "Billy" represents the interests of tens of millions of

parents who are fed up with the public school system. It's well past time for the public school dinosaur to be put out of its misery.

Funny how so many are willing to accept 30-40 percent dropout rates in many urban areas, then kick, scream and pout when someone finally steps in to save our kids' futures.

[Joe Fields]

71. Thank you!

:hi:

[Hannah Bell]

73. like hell he does. they may *think* so, but it ain't the case.

[Diane R]

102. Gates priority is not teacher tenure or seniority. He cares about kids.

[WestSeattle2]

103. Why do you suppose education reform is receiving a

standing ovation from tens of millions of parents of school-age children? Were it not for the pressure being applied by tens of million of voting parents, politicians wouldn't be remotely interested in the education system. They, and hundreds of thousands of public school employees and administrators have stood idly by the last few decades, and watched as the public school system in many urban districts collapsed into a cesspool of incompetence and corrupt values. By corrupt values, I'm talking about the me-first attitude of many teachers and administrators who are more than happy to embrace the status-quo, as long as their pensions are assured; in fact they're more than happy to throw 40% of our nation's kids under the bus to get their way.

Those days are over, with many thanks to Bill Gates and others like him.

[sabrina 1]

95. Got something to back that up with?

Are you in favor of the rich making major decisions for the rest of us simply because they have money?

You do know that NCLB is a failed system, and that enhancing it only contributes to the failure? Are you aware of where the U.S. educational system stands in the world after nearly ten years of Bush's education program now being pushed even further by these billionaires with the help of this administration? Is education a business? Are children mere commodities to be profited from? Because that is what is happening, that is what NCLB was all about. A system thought up by businessmen FOR businessmen and the profits at least for Bush buddies have been very successful. Not so much the education of the children subjected to it.

[Diane R]

101. Thank you, West Seattle. Bill Gates represents parents whose voices are not heard by educators.

[Diane R]

36. Enough to keep some incompetent, but tenured, teachers in the classroom for decades.

[Hannah Bell]

38. another regular talking pointer heard from. thanks for supporting the war on workers.

[EFerrari]

39. Tenure means due process for teachers. How can you be against that?

Good grief.

[Gabi Hayes]

42. you know you're wasting your time with willfully, arrogantly, ignorant (at best) comments like that

how DARE anyone want a fair shake?

you should see what's going on in our school, just with the goodies available to some teachers, and not others. lots of things bubbling under the surface these days, even after we got off the AYP list after two years' purgatory/waiting for the hammer to drop

[Hannah Bell]

51. union-busters at du. what *does* the party stand for if it doesn't stand for labor?

[Joe Fields]

72. it shouldn't stand for freeloading incompetents who shortchange

children in their education, and then are protected, just because they have "tenure."

[EFerrari]

76. There aren't even enough sociopaths in society to fill one profession

with the kind of behavior you're describing, let alone incompetent teachers.

Over the top.

[EFerrari]

68. I hate to hear this.

:(

And am about this far from finding a new hobby. This is just too saddening.

[Starry Messenger]

5. We'll get the last hollow laugh when everyone

is wondering why there are only McSchools for their children to go to. Hell, maybe this is what people really want.

[Hannah Bell]

8. it's what some people at du want.

[Joe Fields]

22. But, but....our current system has worked oh so fucking well!

:puke:

[Hannah Bell]

27. yes, it has, in general. and the places where it hasn't has other problems that charters & priva-

tization ain't gonna fix -- they're going to make it worse.

[EFerrari]

31. Precisely. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

41. k

[Joe Fields]

75. b.s. alert.

the state of our public education system is appalling, at best, and had been for decades. It just didn't start with NCLB. Blowing smoke won't help your cause.

[PassingFair]

79. Both of my kids are/were in public schools, buddy.

And I have NO complaints.

Even here in cash-strapped Michigan.

[Starry Messenger]

26. Well obviously teachers can't be trusted.

It's not like we are professionals who work with children.

[Hannah Bell]

40. k

[KamaAina]

9. Indeed. How much longer before there's a shakeout in the charter school industry

and we end up with two or three national chains, analogous to Target, Kmart and Walmart? :scared:

[Starry Messenger]

10. That's exactly what is going to happen.

The end-point is always monopoly to maximize profit. I know guys in IT who only develop businesses to the point where they can interest Google, etc. in buying them. They know it's only a matter of time because there is no room in the field for little storefront start-ups. People who think they can hold on to their "mom and pop" charters are deluded, sadly.

[KamaAina]

12. Oh, you know it. Here in the Valley, that's called an "exit strategy".

People write it into their business plans. Seriesly.

But it's one thing when it happens to a company that writes iPhone apps, and quite another when it happens to public education.

[Starry Messenger]

54. The only thing sacred to the big guys is the bottom line.

They look at public education and just see a big fat pile of taxpayer money that could be happily sluicing into their trough. You know, for kid$!

[kenny blankenship]

18. I was thinking that the model for what they're doing is probably the privatized prison industry

I don't know exactly how that is organized, but it occurred to me since the resemblance between public school and prison was so obvious already back when I was a kid, and then nobody talked (openly) about privatizing prisons or warfare. Now that the prison system has been converted to a giant sluice for public funds to empty into private pockets, it just makes sense to carry this same approach to public schools, which long resembled prisons anyway. Capital is always searching to find that 'New Market' - ie a public function or resource that can be turned into a private gravy train.

[Starry Messenger]

20. I think you are absolutely correct.

Capital is always searching to find that 'New Market' - ie a public function or resource that can be turned into a private gravy train.

Bingo.

Getting their lunchhooks into public education will be a triumph for these guys.

[704wipes]

88. yep, intercept a government revenue stream

that's entrepreneurship now.

[Greyhound]

96. That is an astonishingly astute observation for this board.

Idiocracy reigns, and who will notice?

[Hannah Bell]

28. that's what's happening in texas as we speak.

[Donnachaidh]

15. so you'd rather have Windoze schools?

That hollow laugh might choke your descendants up more than you think. :eyes:

[Starry Messenger]

19. Me? No.

I'm a teacher. This stuff makes me ill.

[EFerrari]

30. Heald Elementary for everyone -- except the kids whose parents can buy

their way into real education.

[Starry Messenger]

33. {{shudder}}

With little matching logo shirts and team cheers.

[EFerrari]

86. I taught at one of those debt factories for a year.

I had to fight to teach anything. The kids were all working class kids trying to get up from under. It was obscene.

[Octafish]

43. That'd be fine with Corporate McPravda and their owners.

You think educated people would believe their swill?*

(Rhetorical question, my Friend.)

[Starry Messenger]

53. I'm starting to get an inkling of how people must

have felt when they were turned out of their lands for grazing sheep. They've done the math and we just aren't profitable. So out we go.

[704wipes]

87. Would you like fries with your Kids Nuggets?

nt

[kenny blankenship]

7. Hey kids, Did your parents remember to purchase the upgrade of Microsoft's "My Third Grade v2015"?

If not, back to second grade with you! Stand out in the hall, until they send for you from the principal's office.

To the rest of you, welcome to the third grade. Open your browser to chapter 1, and enter your license key now. Begin.

[madfloridian]

25. Just imagine...2 mil for the advertising alone. Tore down public education.

And there is no way to counter that much money.

[Donnachaidh]

13. The college DROP OUT really wants to polish his legacy *halo*

All that money, all the dead companies he walked over -- so he's got to get himself some *good* pr somewhere, right? He's probably planning on controlling the education system next.

[madfloridian]

16. You know the new national standards? Well, guess what.

Here is only one article about how they came to be.

http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=732

[madfloridian]

17. How to set a school curriculum

http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=732

"Here's the "sell" on all this.


Common Core's Curriculum Maps in English Language Arts were written by public school teachers for public school teachers. The maps translate the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Kindergarten through 12th grade into unit maps that teachers can use to plan their year, craft their own more detailed curriculum, and create lesson plans. The maps are flexible and adaptable, yet they address every standard in the CCSS. Any teacher, school, or district that chooses to follow the Common Core maps can be confident that they are adhering to the standards. Even the topics the maps introduce grow out of and expand upon the "exemplar" texts recommended in the CCSS. And because they are free, the maps will save school districts millions in curriculum development costs. The draft maps are available for public comment until September 17. Please tell us what you think!

The Common Core Curriculum Mapping Project, created and operated by Common Core, is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


Did you get that? Bill Gates has paid for all this to be done, and it's being offered free to the schools.And because they are free, the maps will save school districts millions in curriculum development costs. Just call him Master of Curriculum. Bill Gates is delivering the curriculum to every state that signed up for the Common Core stamdards. "

[EFerrari]

32. Makes Neil Bush look like a rank amateur, doesn't it? n/t

[madfloridian]

44. Indeed. And we celebrate Superman now as Democrats.

And that is absolutely heartbreaking to me.

[Hannah Bell]

57. democrats joining with fundies & pubs to privatize schools. unthinkable a decade ago.

the cheerleaders here at DU don't like it when you mention the religious right, the paleocons & finance capital just looooooove charter schools, too.

[Joe Fields]

77. hmm...if everyone is up in arms, maybe you should ask yourself why?

Oh, I know. You are right and everyone else is wrong.

I got it.

[ibegurpard]

93. because propaganda works on the willfully ignorant?

:shrug:

[Tatiana]

35. It's all quite sickening. They see children as commodities that generate profit.

I wonder how many people who advocate the current Republican-inspired "school reform" would send their own children to one of these charter schools. I've observed at a few KIPP charters and their methods remind me a lot of the schools Native American children were shipped off to in order to become more "civilized." They are more into child management than child development.

I'd never put my children in one of those schools.

Maybe Bill Gates is well-intentioned. But I have a problem with billionaires influencing our education policy and not people who are actually working in the trenches to help ALL of our students succeed.

[madfloridian]

37. Wow.

Just noticed that there is an unrec contest going on here.

[Octafish]

45. Organized Operation.

Makes it easier to frame the discussion, so to not speak.

[madfloridian]

48. Actually you are very right.

And it is well known that it is being done. And no one cares.

[Joe Fields]

78. baloney.

Talk about paranoid.

[Octafish]

81. Here's how it works...

Amazing Randi forum: Much blowing of wind, little real substance, but, Gosh, there're a lot of you.

They say it's to keep DU honest, in a sensibly plausibly deniable kind of way.

[madfloridian]

52. Actually somebody goofed and let this get 6 recs.

They must not have been paying close enough attention. :-)

[madfloridian]

92. Went off greatest. Down to 3 recs, but now at 2:09 back to 5

This is really getting funny. I thought the post stayed on greatest if it got to 6.

It's like a game really.

[CBR]

63. Almost every one of your posts gets lots of recs. Why do you always

insist on complaining about unrecs in replies to your own OPs?

[madfloridian]

66. Not any more.

In fact very seldom.

It has become an organized thing now to unrec some of us...and it is being pointed out as it should be.

I don't think they were meant to be used to target some and not others.

It should not be that way.

[Name removed]

80. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Gabi Hayes]

46. geoffrey canada (sp?), charter guru, or whatever, is on letterman tonight. any guesses on

what his treatment will be like?

bet it will be very credulous on dave's part.

it'd be funny if he went after him just because oprah's on his lovelist

[madfloridian]

47. He is getting 200 million from Obama's DOE. His schools are being

replicated around the country with taxpayer money

He will be treated with respect. Teachers in public schools are not treated that way now, but charter operators are.

[Gabi Hayes]

50. already to late to stop the momentum? or what? I had hoped that NCLB would

be stopped in its tracks/slowed, at least, but this mad rush to 'not for profit' charter (or however one chooses to characterize them) schools is beyond depressing

the changes wrought in our district since Bushco are widespread, and nearly all malign. the idea that dems are actively participating in the destruction of public education, many without knowing what's really going on is difficult to understand

on second thought, no, it isn't. people know care to know, and are SO easily influenced by the same, tired, old anti-labor, anti-progressive talking points. it's amazing how easily people fall for the emotionally satisfying, logic-avoiding, Reaganesque, sound-bitey, simplistic answers/solutions to very complicated problems

obviously there are extremely serious problems with our public education system, but to put even the SLIGHTEST trust in the sort of people who assure us that their drastic solution is best is beyond stupid

come ON, people. wise up. look who's bread is being buttered by this fabulous new 'reform' we see being jammed down our throats

[madfloridian]

55. Since there is no longer any party opposing it, it may be too late.

In fact those of us here who oppose it are considered fair game now.

[madfloridian]

49. Damn.

Someone just noticed I forgot to mention kids. Hmmm let me see how to do that in a post about Bill Gates paying 2 million for publicity for a movie to attack public education.

Hmmmmm

[Starry Messenger]

59. Well $2 million dollars would certainly pay for more teachers:

cutting class sizes at one school alone to allow teachers to spend more time with each student, which is a dream we barely mention because we know our hopes will be dashed. But why would a billionaire be interested in an actual workable solution? No profit to him.

[madfloridian]

61. But they had to publicize the anti-union film.

Most important to them.

[Starry Messenger]

64. He probably barely noticed that sum, scary part.

[Greyhound]

97. I've read many posts that claim such idiocy as whitman's spending $120M

to buy the governorship but (possibly) losing is some kind of hardship for her.

They actually believe that dropping from a net of $1.3B to $1.2B matters...
:eyes:

Maybe it's simply an inability to fathom large numbers.

[Hannah Bell]

56. kik

[Hannah Bell]

58. k

[madfloridian]

62. So few see the confused priorities. Painful to see.

Our country has changed so much that we easily accept, in fact argue for, such inequities in the education field.

Maybe we could have been successful in pushing back, maybe it was always too late.

Sadly though, those of us who have spoken up have become the enemy at DU. And that really hurts.

[EFerrari]

74. People are defending all kinds of the recently unthinkable.

Pentagon cover ups, the gutting of our schools, the overthrow of democratic governments, FBI harassment of peace activists.

This is a bad time to be conscious in many ways. I don't know how much longer I can read these threads, madfloridian, but I salute you for fighting the good fight. You never know who is reading and not posting. You are doing something very valuable. Thank you.

[Gabi Hayes]

82. hey there. check PMs, pls

[EFerrari]

84. I think the NSA is wiretapping me

because there aren't any.

lol

:)

[Reader Rabbit]

65. Cui bono?

Call me a cynic, but I don't buy that a bunch of gazillionaires are chucking money around over this out of the kindness of their hearts. So what's in it for them?

[proud2BlibKansan]

85. It's called philanthropy

You know, that stuff that comes from the goodness of a rich man's heart. And all that.

[Greyhound]

98. The same thing that was in it for them in stealing those billions in the first place,

more for them, less for everybody else.

William Gates III has never for one moment in his life ever demonstrated any desire to do anything other than further the power of William Gates III. The scion of a ruling class family propelled to ever greater heights through nothing beyond the accident of his birth.

Just like George W. Bush.

[Matariki]

89. What do you find wrong with that movie?

[madfloridian]

90. It's anti-union, pro-charter, and it is propaganda...

of the worst sort. It pulls on the heart strings for kids who can get a perfectly good education in public schools. That is if they quit dismantling and defunding them and giving their money to privately run schools.

[Hardrada]

91. I agree with you as always.

I think some of the blue meanies on this thread have ulterior reasons to be opposed to public education. Of course they are the "new democrats" who infest this forum like bedbugs.

[JackRiddler]

99. kick

[The Midway Rebel]

100. Waiting for ...

Bill Gates to cut me a check too.

k & r