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In this week's program, we take a closer look at the role of the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation in funding and promoting corporate
education reform. The Gates Foundation is one of a handful of venture
philanthropists - along with the Broad and Walton Foundations - who
have spent billions of dollars in the last decade to change the face of
public education in the United States.
Gates' agenda for reform is
essentially identical to that of the U.S. Department of Education,
namely increasing the use of high-stakes standardized tests at all
levels, standardizing curriculum, creating a de-unionized system of
merit-based pay for teachers tied to student test scores, and
disinvesting in neighborhood public schools in favor of opening new
charter schools.
As we've explored in previous episodes of Education
Radio, all of these reforms can be tied to a larger ideology of
free-market competition and a corporate agenda of deregulation and
privatization, and are actually leading to greater social and economic
inequalities.
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