Bill Gates is wrong and manipulative
The Sacramento Bee has an article today from the Associated Press on Bill Gates and school reform.
Here the article is in the Washington Post
Here is a response to this often quoted mantra.
If you wish to fix the schools, you need to start by accurately describing the problem. Bill Gates does not. He claims, “ It is no secret that the U.S. education system is failing.” It is not only not a secret, it is also not accurate.
Well over 50% of U.S. schools are doing quite well- even with the draconian cuts in school budgets.
There is a group of schools where students are failing at disgraceful rates- and these schools are almost all in poverty areas. The late Gerald Bracey pointed out that U.S. schools with less than 25 percent of their students in poverty outscore all other countries in math and science.
U.S. children only fall below the international average when 75 percent or more of the students in a school live in poverty. The political economy of the U.S. creates the highest level of childhood poverty of industrialized countries and in the process creates school failure.
The Gates assertion is a part of the new age corporate agenda to blame the schools and teachers for the crisis created by the corporate domination of our economy and politics.
For an alternative see www.boldapproach.org/
Duane Campbell
Prof. of Education (Emeritus)
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