Some individuals, teachers, teacher unions, state educational boards and maybe even some within the Department of Education are wondering how his influence and more importantly his money will effect education. Of course Bill Gates won’t be the next Secretary of Education but his ideas, founded through The Gates Foundation, might push his agenda for a better educational system into the states that you teach. The Foundation has spent $200 million on elementary and secondary schools in the forms of grants already.
The co-founder of Microsoft, “Is taking unprecedented steps to spend millions to influence the way the federal government distributes $5 billion in grants to overhaul public schools” according to Libby Quaid and Donna Blankinship of the Associated Press.
How it works is state educational agencies can apply for the sum of $250,000 from Bill Gates to help them go after federal stimulus dollars set aside for education. The catch is that if your state is awarded federal money you will then follow guidelines setup by the Gates Foundation.
Don’t worry because the Obama Administration and the Gates agree on many similar strategies to improve education like, “Paying teachers based on student test scores, among other measures of achievement; charter schools that operate independently of local school boards; and a set of common academic standards adopted by every state”, the USA Today article said.
How do you feel about your pay being based on student test scores? Or charter schools? Or common academic standards?
Obviously many organizations and unions are questioning this agenda and many think that since two of Bill Gates former employees sit on the Sec. of Education inner circle there is some wrongdoing.
“It's no secret the U.S. education system is failing," Gates said. "We're doing all kinds of experiments that are different. The Race To The Top is going to do many different ones. There's no group-think,” was his response to these accusations.
If you’re unfamiliar “The Race to the Top” is the government program, not the Gates Foundation program.
Another issue is, “The foundation's rising profile comes as the recession has gutted state and local budgets, which spend more money on education — roughly 35% — than anything else. Many states and districts can't keep all their teachers on the payroll, let alone spend money on a high-stakes application for federal money that includes some 44 pages of rules.”
The most interesting part of this article for me was that when the Gates Foundation started this program it was only open to 15 states but other states found out and complained that they needed money also to apply for federal dollars so Gates opened it up to, “any state that meets eight criteria, including a commitment to the common standards effort and the ability to link student data to teachers.”
Finally, I think Bill Gates heart is in the right place for trying to help schools acquire more money and if he wants to set guidelines for it and the schools are willing to accept them so be it, but I worry about the schools that don’t want to follow his guidelines, they will be a huge disadvantage when the stimulus money is doled out. I am not sure what the solution is but why not try this and see what the results are.
Why restructure? Does it really do anything?
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Restructuring Under NCLB Found Not to Really Do Much
This week's final post comes in under the NCLB act. As you know from
previous posts, I am very pessimi...
15 years ago
Kyren,
ReplyDeleteI, too, think that it is great that Bill Gates is wanting to help states and school acquire the money they need. Like you, I wonder about the schools who won't or can't follow all the guidelines for whatever reasons.
I'm totally and completely against teacher's pay being based on student test scores. This is not fair because you might be the best teacher in the world but you might be teaching students who have many difficulties and struggles. These students are being tested right along with everyone else. Is this fair? Absolutely NOT!
In my opinion, there needs to be some sort of balance in how to base salaries on. It is also my opinion that if you are a good teacher, you are going to put everythin you have into helping all students.
Thanks for posting this blog!
Kyren,
ReplyDeleteI know that certain groups of students work well together, just like good teams in the NFL or NBA. If I was allowed to recruit my own students and form a team that I will teach from grades K-12, I'd be completely interested in this form of payment. However, I understand that Bill and Barrack are interested in promoting quality performance, which will translate into higher teacher turn over and many pay cuts on the flip side. They are going to pay teachers more for success, and if they do, it's going to balance out for them later when you get a group of underperforming students. One year, you'll be praised as a great teacher and asked, "What did you do differently?" The next year they'll say, "Sorry, you have a choice to resign or take a pay cut. Your class didn't do well this year. What did you do differently?" It's not an incentive for teachers to do anything except grasp for air in an already bureaucratically suffocated field of work. Do good teachers constantly change the fundamentals of their core teaching? Do you? Is that a link to success? I submit that it is not. Bill and Barrack are in a world of their own and creating it with money. Bill with his own, Barrack with mine. It's no wonder why we have fewer and fewer right wing teachers in education. It feels like you're working for the enemy on a daily basis with all the pc correct, liberal minded hypocrites.
As soon as the focus is taken away from individual success and laying blame on someone else like a teacher, we'll have more corruption. Bill, referred to as the messiah much like Barrack, should provide a bonus to everyone who influenced him positively in the past. If teachers were in it for the money, you'd find empty classrooms. Yet they want to essentially take money from certain teachers or point the finger at them for society's problems while giving money to the people who are in the right place at the right time? Money is not the answer to anything, especially education. All it does is make people listen and give a false sense of respect to others. Pushing personal or political beliefs with taxpayer money is unfortunate. I don't mind Bill paying for things and creating regulations for earning the money from his own pocket. That's fine. I do worry, however, that rich people work with any President to promote a control system in every avenue of public lives.
Eventually, I'll be able to keep 20% of my paycheck while 80% goes to penalties, fines, and taxes from Bill and Barrack because my class had 15% English speaking, 20% migrants, 20% expulsion rate, 40% absences, 50% divorce rate, 90% free-and-reduced lunch, and 90% depression because they have no extra-curricular activities to motivate positive performance. I'll have enough money to help pay for half of my fuel costs to pick up food stamps. I'm already paying approximately 40% of my paycheck to the government as a teacher in California. Teachers are typically in good standing financially because they have better than average organizational skills, yet they're still just above poverty levels across America. What will happen to them if we penalize them for a student and family who doesn't care about education anyway? Good luck America, next stop, China or shall I say communism?
I think schools that don't follow Bill or Barrack will be ahead of the game in performance, financial wisdom, and individual student achievement. Don't worry, free market capitalism and common sense education will succeed or America will fail, epically. We don't need more money or control that comes from being on the "dole." Look at the government worker resting his chin on his shovel and see that to be true.
Have a good weekend.
Randy B.