politics

Bill Gates and public education

Thanks, Bill Gates, for shedding some light on the situation in our schools. Nice for the head of one of the world’s most profitable—and predatory—companies to weigh in on the issue of education.

I’d love to run schools like a business, too. So would many administrators, parents, teachers, and students. Here’s the challenge, though.

If a shipment of widgets arrived that are too big, too blue or too defective, you simply send them back. And, you seek another set of acceptable widgets. Can’t do that with schoolchildren.

If Miguel does not speak English well enough to stay with the other students, you can’t send him home. If Bart wears emotional baggage like an unintended cross from a home filled with abuse and parents who cannot or who choose not help him learn, you can’t send him home. If Joshua’s doesn’t quite learn at the pace of most students, you can’t send him home.


Private schools have the ability to pick and choose students who attend the school. Public schools do not. Private schools answer to a select group of parents and often a limited religious hierarchy. Public schools answer to a far broader, more diverse constituency—the general public--than private schools. When funds are needed, private schools simply raise tuition or seek donations from parents and supporters. While private schools, through vehicles such as the PTA and foundations may seek additional money, funding is provided through the state budget, often a contentious process or through controversial and frequently costly ballot measures.

In the state of Oregon, the cost of educating a regular student for a calendar year is $7,600. The cost to education a special needs student is $30,000. From a business perspective, you would jettison the special needs student as unprofitable. Public schools do not have that luxury.

Public schools live the spirit of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

We have assigned public schools the unenviable task of accepting and educating all, of living the promises engraved on this cherished American monument.

That foundation does not exempt public schools from continually seeking innovative ways to educate, creative ways to stretch tax dollars and novel means to attract qualified and resourceful teachers and administrators. We need those ideas, that vision, the inventiveness more than ever. However, the admission underscores the challenges faced by public schools when they are not allowed to operate like private businesses. Even Bill Gates can understand that.

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posted by dq @ 9:01 AM