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Gates: "Poverty is an excuse"

in

Billionaire corporate education reformer Bill Gates has become increasingly bizarre in his public proclamations. We reported a short while ago about his slip that sounded an awful lot like an admission he would like to privatize public education.Now he seems to think poverty is no obstacle, all we have to do is hand poor students over to a charter school

Microsoft founder Bill Gates told the National Urban League on Thursday that a child's success should not depend on the race or income of parents and that poverty cannot be an excuse for a poor education.
[...]
Gates, who now runs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, cited his foundation's work with charter schools as an example.

At least he has enough self awareness to know he doesn't know what he is talking about

"Let me acknowledge that I don't understand in a personal way the challenges that poverty creates for families, and schools and teachers," the billionaire said at the civil rights group's annual convention.

You can further forgive Gates, because it's not like there is very much research showing the direct ties between poverty and educational achievement.

All just excuses, right?

Charter school amendments likely to be stripped

in

Credit where credit is due, the Governor's education Czar is also unhappy with the House Republican changes to the budget that creates a wild west charter school privatization system in Ohio.

House leaders refuse to say which legislator submitted the budget amendments. However, at least some were made at the request of major Republican donor and leading for-profit charter-school operator David L. Brennan, who runs White Hat Management in Akron.

Sommers told state board members today that school choice creates competition that will improve Ohio's education system. But both charter schools and traditional public schools alike must be accountable for student performance and public financing, and poorly performing schools must be shut down.

He also cited the need for "more transparency about funding for charter schools."

Clearly, pressure from all angles is causing some second thoughts, and hopfully the big loser in all this will be David Brennan and not pubic education and accountability.