Maybe because they are plain old selfish.

Most of them think that some god anointed them to be an MBA from Hahvahd with a rich daddy and wonderful friends who help them with business and legal dealings.

Of course we deserve it - we worked hard to have that sperm and egg make us!

with what they plan to spent on buying politicians the next 18 months.

their frozen grasps and actually has a slight chance of actually recirculating through our economy.

Last edited Thu May 7, 2015, 03:24 PM - Edit history (1)

the Gates Foundation.

They give millions to education.

Edit: Thanks for all the enlightenment. I rescind this example.

But not the majority.

future profit center.

I would prefer that Bill Gates pay more in taxes and trust trained teachers. He is not a teacher and should keep his theories out of our schools.

He wants to BUST up public education and teacher's unions. He's not doing it out of the goodness of his heart!! I wish people would look past PR releases and find real info. His foray into public education was only to enrich himself and his other wealthy friends, as is true of all his initiatives. The foundation's work in Africa is even WORSE. Fuck that guy.

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/got-dough-how-billionaires-rule-our-schools

The sorry tale of the Gates Foundation’s first major project in education reform has been told often, but it’s key to understanding how Gates functions. I’ll run through it briefly. In 2000 the foundation began pouring money into breaking up large public high schools where test scores and graduation rates were low. The foundation insisted that more individual attention in closer “learning communities” would—presto!—boost achievement. The foundation didn’t base its decision on scientific studies showing school size mattered; such studies didn’t exist. As reported in Bloomberg Businessweek (July 15, 2010), Wharton School statistician Howard Wainer believes Gates probably “misread the numbers” and simply “seized on data showing small schools are overrepresented among the country’s highest achievers….” Gates spent $2 billion between 2000 and 2008 to set up 2,602 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia, “directly reaching at least 781,000 students,” according to a foundation brochure. Michael Klonsky, professor at DePaul University and national director of the Small Schools Workshop, describes the Gates effect this way:

"Gates funding was so large and so widespread, it seemed for a time as if every initiative in the small-schools and charter world was being underwritten by the foundation. If you wanted to start a school, hold a meeting, organize a conference, or write an article in an education journal, you first had to consider Gates (“Power Philanthropy” in The Gates Foundation and the Future of Public Schools, 2010)."

In November 2008, Bill and Melinda gathered about one hundred prominent figures in education at their home outside Seattle to announce that the small schools project hadn’t produced strong results. They didn’t mention that, instead, it had produced many gut-wrenching sagas of school disruption, conflict, students and teachers jumping ship en masse, and plummeting attendance, test scores, and graduation rates. No matter, the power couple had a new plan: performance-based teacher pay, data collection, national standards and tests, and school “turnaround” (the term of art for firing the staff of a low-performing school and hiring a new one, replacing the school with a charter, or shutting down the school and sending the kids elsewhere).

Very interesting!

All we have to do is hear about "the plan." It's the same I heard 50 years ago in Oregon. It's an old trick: claim to be for education and do everything you can against it.

You gotta hang onto those dollars, man, if you ever want to collect a billion of 'em.

I'm glad Cobert did this, but again, it shouldn't have to be this way.

Everybody wants the service, but nobody wants to pay for it,
especially those that can afford to pay for it, like the billionaires mentioned.

We used to have an education system that was the envy of the world.
But this is our tax breaks at work.

No ROI for them.

they have no moral conscience unless it fits there agenda, and they only see greed.
And if they can't get anything for it, except what's in for them with a corrupt a politician of that ilk, they just have no common sense or PRINCIPLES for the commons---like education for all

Better to not take their money even if it were offered.

can accumulate.

And since Cobert is doing this, the great state of SC can cut funding for schools!

You know, for the "tough" times...

sector works! The richest country in the world, and school teachers have to beg for money.

Shop teacher in a poorer district, asking for 2 drills so that the kids get equal time. Stuff I would have never thought of. You know?

But I know it's true. I bet teachers will be asking for books and pencils. When I was a high school English teacher, there wasn't a single paperback novel in my room and there weren't enough of any book in the library for every student to get the same one to read as a class. So I went on the internet and bought them all used. My students had never read an entire book in their lives and probably never would again. I'm sure that cutting capital gains will change all of that.

and all other office supply items, and all books aside from textbooks.

And we think teachers are the problem?

I bet there are children in my neighborhood with nary a book in their homes. It's TV or nothing. Think of the books you could buy with just one month's worth of a cable TV subscription. Used books. Our local library has lots of children visiting in the afternoons.

"Never punish a student for stealing a book from your classroom. It may be the only book in their house and their siblings might take it down and look through it." I definitely took it to heart and went even further. I made the offer to all of my students, we're talking low income students at all reading levels going down to illiterate in two languages, if there was any book on any subject they were interested in, I would buy it for them and they could get credit for a short report. I had students who were interested in carpentry, gardening, mechanics, cosmetology, cooking, I could make a whole list. So all they had to do was tell me and I would buy a used copy of something. Not every student took me up on it, but more than a few did.

All this while the state was removing the novel from the curriculum because it wasn't on the test. I stood up at a district wide meeting one time and gave an impassioned speech for teaching long form, such as the novel or novella, because it is a very different experience than the test which is short form with question and answer. My principal almost wet himself from fear of repercussions, but I didn't care. Because novels get people to love to read, to see the benefit of enjoying a story. And novels are humanizing, in fact, that is their original intent. To cut that out of class in favor of short, meaningless paragraphs that the student then answers a few multiple choice questions is a GUARANTEE that students will HATE class.

readers class with a whole lot of boys.

Our teacher wanted us to learn how to love to read. Every Thursday she took just those of us in that class to the public library to check out books. She started us on westerns and they showed each of us individually how to find our own genre. All of us in that class learned to read and learned to love it.

I like your idea as well. When my great grandchildren go to a birthday party of one of their friends I always suggest books as the gift. Books last.

which was actually just a sectioned off area in the common room. They learned how to look up a subject, how to find a book, and each student had to pick something they liked. I didn't care if it was a children's book with pictures, I just wanted them to hold a book in their hands.

A lot of my students, living in what everyone called the ghetto, were afraid to take books home. Because they would get picked on if they were seen walking with a book. How can you fix that except economically and with lots of concerted effort?

When I found out how hard it was for so many of my students to read, and how their comprehension was so low, I finally understood why they never did it. There was no pleasure in it. So one thing that was a huge success is getting an audiobook and playing it on a boom box in class while the students read along. Their understanding improved exponentially and their vocabulary did too as they finally heard unfamiliar words. Their favorite exercise was adding to our "ghettosaurus" where new vocabulary words were translated into familiar terms. They absolutely loved that part and we would laugh and laugh. That's where their creativity finally came out. It was also very successful when I started teaching math as well.

rummage sales I love to go to and send them to schools who do not have good libraries. I did do that a while to New Orleans after Katrina but that was to a college. Fortunately the post office has a good shipping cost for books.

Heidi and other stories some quite long. We would all crowd around her as she read. It instilled a love of books and learning in us all. I studied a lot of literature and absolutely agree with you about the value of reading novels.

It would be unthinkable for German or French students to finish their equivalent of a high school education in academic studies without a good knowledge of the literature of their country. And it should be unthinkable in America too.

I am reading Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings. I am reading it very slowly because I savor each page. It's just wonderful!

I love writers talking about their journey. If you haven't read Tennessee Williams' autobiography, it's worth checking out too. My favorite is of course James Baldwin who I will ready anything by, but I also love Ray Bradbury's and Stephen King's works on writing. I read so many books I can't keep up!

Whenever they are asked to purchase a book, a comp book, or a sketch book, some of us buy extras for the teachers to quietly pass on to a student in need.

For some families, purchasing things like that means missing a meal. What a sad state our country is in.

They never go to waste.

And checked the shelves at Goodwill every time she went in to look for clothes for us. We never had to worry if the library at school or the public library had the books in when we needed them.

I was able to cobble together a set of 35 used books from the internet. Whatever it takes. Now with tablets and ebooks, I'm not sure how it works in class but I love reading books for free on my kindle from the library.

From Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/) and from the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/index.php).

My favorite place these days to buy used books is Thriftbooks.com - most books are $3-4 and often shipping is free.

I don't know about Apple tablets but on my old Android tablet I have a Kindle app that lets me read books for free from the library - but I prefer a real book rather than the electronic ones.

having to stock enough copies of any one book to provide for an entire class. This came out of the individual classroom budget. It's been a decade since I taught, but that was always the case since back in the days when education funding was important to almost everyone.

The budget was from my wallet. I was in an ok position at the time because I was single without a family to support. So I spoiled the hell out of my students as much as I could.

and clicked on the block that said "Search by Zip Code." I don't know if you can search by district or not, but if I see it, I'll let you know.

it has a negative side. Generosity like this, "allows" the right wingers in state legislators to veto important responsibilities because they can count on angels/fairies/leprechauns/elves to fund PUBLIC education...freeing up money to give away to their benefactors via tax cuts..

K and R

What a man!

An out of the blue gesture for a great cause.

media ignores the stinking, putrid heaps of corruption piled high on their own political doorsteps and boardrooms.

Huckabee selling snake like variety diabetes and boner pills......nothing to see there, folks, Huckabee has money to spend on corporate friendly media ads before he is done, so it is all good!

But remember, that only applies if your last name is Clinton. So he might squeak by the scrutiny of the purist patrol.

Colbert!!!

This makes my heart happy and brings a huge smile to my face. People can be so wonderful.

an individual who could afford it. nt

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2015/05/07/this-is-what-stephen-colberts-money-will-help-buy-greenville-county-teachers/70940830/




This is what teachers in Greenville have asked for help with:

Alexander Elementary School, a Title One school with 100 percent on free or reduced lunch

4 Hokki stools: $500
Classroom carpet: $520
iPad Mini 3 covers: $441
Basic school supplies such as pencils and air freshener: $545
A trampoline and treadmill for sensory therapy: $504
Books that are good for girls: $408
Books that are good for boys: $366
More high interest books: $322
Dodge balls for recess play: $165
16 new bulletin boards: $202



Fisher Middle School

Game chairs for flexible learning: $485



Langston Charter Middle School, between 40 and 65 percent of students are on free or reduced lunch

A kidney-shaped activity table for individualized attention: $444



Hollis Academy, a Title One school

Hot Dot multiplication flashcard system: $624
A set of write and wipe pockets and write and wipe erasers: $179


Mitchell Road Elementary, a high poverty school

Classroom library books: $239



Quest Leadership Academy

Two bookshelves: $360



Robert Cashion Elementary School

Books on CD: $506




Sullivan Center

Motivational posters: $206



Duncan Chapel Elementary School

Headphones and splitters: $318



Smart way to get the money right to the needs. Such simple but necessary items to facilitate teaching our children.

Sad, tons of money for war machines, little for our schools.

And while I don't agree with depending on the wealthy to fund what should be well-funded with our taxes, this is desperate measures for desperate times. I'm hoping it will bring a lot of attention to the real reasons why schools can't get ahead. Now if he could only fund the salaries of a few thousand teacher's aides and figure out for parent volunteers to go back into the classroom, that would be awesome.

We need more of the "stars" to step up like you did!

And love, love, love to the teachers all over the country. You make America better. You sure can't say that of very many people. But you teacher, you make America better.

is a national treasure.

And still going strong. I love this guy.

So isn't his money dirty? LOL!

that he's not running for office.

And yet we have people in this country who are far wealthier than Stephen who spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy our government so as to increase their advantage over the rest of us. How much good could be done if a billionaire decided to pave this street in Omaha, and another send 100 students to college, etc. I hope for a brighter day and must not despair. Soplice

But I'm really looking forward to seeing what Stephen does with the Late Show.

Yes, sarcasm. Hopefully this embarrasses the hell out of the SC legislature. But I doubt they're capable of feeling emotions.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

Good on him and his fundraising partners.

We need to increase taxes on the rich back to where they were when we had the best education system in the world.

I think that's called integrity or something. I'll have to look it up.

-- Mal

in various school districts to call attention to the fact that the state is under court order to fully fund education. This morning on the radio I heard a parent railing at "the UNION!!" for doing this to kids. And this is in the LIBERAL half of Washington State.

I can't believe the depths to which public education in this country has sunk, but all the better from the 1% point of view -- a dumbed down, subservient workforce is just what they're after. Mission accomplished.

Bravo to Stephen. Always liked that man

Kudos to you Stephen Colbert.

Your are sorely missed in my house.

Can't wait to see back on the air.

Last edited Fri May 8, 2015, 01:03 AM - Edit history (1)

I was gonna do it before but I now DVR every single new episode of his Late Night show till I die

dinner.

Saw only a few minutes of the interviews with he and Jon Stewart. They are both so impressive in many ways. Stephen just seems like the nicest human being ever. Funny, caring, creative, brilliant...... you could go on and on. I rarely watch David Letterman but I will definitely be checking out the show when Colbert takes over.

lol j/k

... KAWWW-BLAMMMM! An explosion of humanity!

Hopefully he will inspire others with the means to do this...

Now that's Americaning!

We should be furious that charity from Americans to Americans is ever required.

Government should fund every...last...requirement in public education, because it's public education. All of it. And err on the side of assuming something is necessary rather than the other way around.

Taxes should be raised to pay for it until the need is met.

All there is to it.

All of us should be as committed to America's schools as Colbert is, and tell those who aren't that their selfish idiocy is just not on the agenda.

both Republican and Democratic seem to restrict education funding these days?

He is showing the republicans of his state what a real christian is like.

I am not religious but Stephen definitely lives his beliefs.

Feds failed to keep tabs on $3B in aid doled out to charter schools. 3 billion?

Its like someone here said earlier, there is no ROI for them if they invest in someone else's education that might work for the competition.

Stephen did this and that a comparison was drawn between him and Bill Gates. It appears there is no comparison. Different motivations and like that. YOU ROCK, Stephen.