"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Gates, Men in Suits in Suites, and Education Policy?

I don't normally read the New York Times wedding announcements, but one sentence in this write-up caught my eye:
[Dell] is a freelance writer in New York and is working on a project for the Gates Foundation, interviewing chief executives about education policy.
Is Bill paying writers to push his reform agenda? Or, is Bill looking for juicy quotes from the corporate world to support his reform proposals? Or - even more worrisome - is Bill paying journalists to solicit ideas about education reform from chief executives?

1 comment:

  1. One thing this little nugget tells you is why you see so little critical, or even impartial, press reporting on charter schools.

    The news business is collapsing (my own family are victims; my husband took a buyout after 33 years as a reporter at a major metro newspaper), and the charter school business is thriving, rolling in money and offering jobs. Need I say more?

    ReplyDelete