Bill Gates fucked the public school systems pretty hard.
Something I think is extremely fucked up in general is that if you have millions to throw at a pet cause, you will disproportionately benefit your cause over other causes in a non-democratic manner. That means that every individual and organization involved in fields related to your pet projects are incentivized to focus on your pet projects over others. Because you have so much money, you basically individually shape public policy.
Look at the WHO (source):
…over 80 per cent of WHO’s funding relies on “voluntary contributions,” meaning any amount of money given freely by donors, whether member states, NGOs, philanthropic organisations or other private entities.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation alone is responsible for over 88 per cent of the total amount donated by philanthropic foundations to the WHO. Other contributors include the Bloomberg Family Foundation (3.5 per cent), the Wellcome Trust (1.1 per cent) and the Rockefeller Foundation (0.8 per cent).
So yeah, it’s great that they donate so much… but that also means they can stop donating… so they have control.
Didn’t know about the charter school thing. Charter schools are such bullshit. The idea is that we’re going to get kids from public schools in impoverished areas into better schools… by causing the public schools to get LESS money?
The number one thing hurting education since the beginning of the system is the way it is funded. It is funded from property taxes collected in the school’s district. So inevitably, poor areas get shit schools and rich areas get nice schools. It should instead all get pooled together nationwide and then handed out based on the number of students at each school.
Charter schools and private schools do nothing but hurt. Anyone feel differently? I’m usually open to having my mind changed.
Enthusiastically in agreement that funding of school districts and regional equity is a major problem. Funding is likely problem #1, but I think the problems with funding are more complex than just property taxes.
Concentrating poverty also creates poor areas and exacerbates the problem. It’s so frustrating that there are so many NIMBY assholes that don’t want affordable housing near them.