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Laurene Jobs Awards $10M To Pet Charter School Network of Zuckerberg, Gates

Posted by BeauHD on from the personalized-software dept.

theodp writes: The XQ Institute -- a nonprofit backed by Laurene Powell Jobs (Steve's widow) -- announced the winners of its $100 million competition (Warning: may be paywalled) to rethink the American high school this week. Among the 10 lucky schools winning a $10M grant was Summit Elevate ("a new high school planning to open in Fall 2018"), part of the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg-supported Summit Charter Schools network (HP CEO Meg Whitman is on Summit's Board). In announcing the grant, XQ praised Basecamp, Summit's personalized learning software platform that was developed by Facebook engineers, which Bill Gates has spent $1+ million on to get schools to adopt it (the NY Times characterized the Facebook-Summit partnership as "more of a ground-up effort to create a national demand for student-driven learning in schools"). U.S. education, it seems, is becoming The Game of Billionaires -- at last May's NewSchools Venture Summit, former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (now working for Jobs) was interviewed by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education and Gates Foundation Program Director Jim Shelton (now working for Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan).

51 comments

  1. Good for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Summit Elevate deserves the award and recognition.

  2. Biased title by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

    "Pet charter school"? That seems to say the submitter thinks this isn't a good idea.

    Dude. If someone want to shake up education to try something new, and wants to give a boat load of money - what's not to love?

    What if this turns up something that works better?
    What if it doesn't, and all we get is rich people giving money towards educating a bunch of children?

    1. Re: Biased title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why the fuck are so many stories turning into editorials on here? If you want to submit an editorial, write a feature and ask the editors to post it. We don't need ordinary stories that include opinions or, worse yet, seem very trollish.

    2. Re:Biased title by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Dude. If someone want to shake up education to try something new, and wants to give a boat load of money - what's not to love?

      ... and if they team up with some billionaires, it means their effort is more likely to be successful, and more likely to make a difference.

      This looks like a smart and logical move, despite the submitters attempt to manufacture outrage.

      There is a Summit HS in my city, San Jose. My kids don't attend it, but some neighbors do, and they are very happy with it.

    3. Re: Biased title by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Because every nitwit has a pet peeve: theodp hates CS education for children and H1Bs because he is afraid they are going to take his job. mdsolar hates nuclear power because he lives near a plant. Everyone has some sort of gripe. Guess what people? Grow up. Life doesn't revolve around you. Stop being so narcissistic.

    4. Re:Biased title by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Dude. If someone want to shake up education to try something new, and wants to give a boat load of money - what's not to love?

      There have been charter schools for over a decade and they suck even worse than public schools. They're little more than a siphon for moving wealth upwards. Even worse, they're bringing down successful public schools. If you want to fix schools, you have to disconnect their funding from property taxes.

      http://www.businessinsider.com...

      http://www.slate.com/blogs/sch...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Biased title by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      ... and if they team up with some billionaires, it means their effort is more likely to be successful, and more likely to make a difference.

      Why is that? Because billionaires are infallible?

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    6. Re:Biased title by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      There have been charter schools for over a decade and they suck even worse than public schools.

      Charter schools get similar results as public schools. They sometimes do better, and sometimes not ... but they do it for less money. Since they tend to be in low income neighborhoods, with limited budgets, the cost effectiveness is important.

      They're little more than a siphon for moving wealth upwards.

      Nonsense. Charter schools are most popular where the public schools are the worst, which is mostly low income areas. They help the poor the most, because the poor are the losers in the traditional public schools system.

      The city with the most charters schools is New Orleans, which has some of the worst poverty rates in America.

      Even worse, they're bringing down successful public schools.

      Actually, public schools tend to improve when they are exposed to competition through parent choice.

      If you want to fix schools, you have to disconnect their funding from property taxes.

      Good luck with that.

    7. Re:Biased title by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Why is that? Because billionaires are infallible?

      They tend to be less fallible than non-billionaires. Bill and Mark didn't get to be billionaires by winning the lottery. They made some smart decisions, hired good people, and built successful organizations. Also, they have a lot of money, and that can sometimes help make projects successful

    8. Re: Biased title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is your pet peeve people who have pet peeves?

    9. Re: Biased title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it's stupid questions?

    10. Re:Biased title by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      Dude. If someone want to shake up education to try something new, and wants to give a boat load of money - what's not to love?

      ... and if they team up with some billionaires, it means their effort is more likely to be successful, and more likely to make a difference.

      A difference in de-professionalizing education and bringing teachers to the same level as barista's at Starbucks. A difference in funneling hundreds of billions in public dollars into the blood funnels of the leisure class, because already being more rich than 90% of the population combined just isn't enough for them.

      This isn't something to be commended. This is a reason to break the guillotines out of storage.

      Besides, have you Randian's thought about what will happen when unions are utterly crushed and every elementary school has quarterly revenue targets? What happens when the school turns a total blind eye to the constant bullying of your (naturally brilliant and hard working) John Galt Jr. because the bully's dad is a partner on the school board?

      Why is that? Because billionaires are infallible?

      They tend to be less fallible than non-billionaires. Bill and Mark didn't get to be billionaires by winning the lottery. They made some smart decisions, hired good people, and built successful organizations. Also, they have a lot of money, and that can sometimes help make projects successful

      Bill was in the right place at the right time through pure dumb luck, created & abused a monopoly to push out the competition, and got his start through his momma's business connections. Jobs had three great runs (first and second stints at Apple, Pixar) but he is the incredibly rare exception, not the obnoxiously elitist rule.

    11. Re:Biased title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In other words, "Make somebody else pay for it!".

      Spoken like a true parasite.

    12. Re: Biased title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or people who go meta

  3. So long as no filthy poor people get their hands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    on the money.

  4. theodp by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Theodp, we need to do something about this! If they educate these kids, they are going to take out jerbs!!!

  5. "Basecamp"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously!? If you are going to rip off someone else's software name, at least pick one that isn't cursed!

  6. what do we have to lose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Public schools will suck more catastrophically than they do now? Maybe if they intend to start teaching necromancy and cannibalism. Multicultural studies encompasses many disciplines...

  7. more COLLEGE FOR ALL HS's is not what we need! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    more COLLEGE FOR ALL HS's is not what we need!.

    We need more of an trades / apprenticeship push at least as choice so are not sending so many kids into an 4+ year loan. With very mixed out comes on real work place skills.

    1. Re:more COLLEGE FOR ALL HS's is not what we need! by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Very mixed? I find it to be pretty consistent. The majority were retards going in and are retards coming out.

    2. Re:more COLLEGE FOR ALL HS's is not what we need! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      more COLLEGE FOR ALL HS's is not what we need!.

      We need more of an trades / apprenticeship push at least as choice so are not sending so many kids into an 4+ year loan. With very mixed out comes on real work place skills.

      Billionaires want to make sure that everyone else becomes a pliable labor unit. Burdening them with massive education debt that they can only hope to pay off by groveling for some white collar "knowledge worker" job is how they will do it.

  8. Charter schools are parasites. by waspleg · · Score: 2

    They exist to turn a profit. Education should not be for profit. They are literally filter feeders and the kids get what's left over.

    I work in K-12. I've seen both sides first hand including hybrids. Public schools could be better but Charters are a step back.

    They're essentially the same as the privatized prisons only they can cherry pick their inmates to look better than they are while cutting as many corners as possible.

    1. Re: Charter schools are parasites. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. There are plenty of for profit private schools that work just fine. Charter schools are hardly for profit but the $45k school that the Presidents kids go to sure is!

    2. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      I work in K-12.

      ... and likely a member of a teacher's union with a vested interest in the current lack of accountability.

      they can cherry pick their inmates

      Charter schools in most states are required to select their students using a public random lottery. There is no "cherry picking".

      Free advice: By referring to students as "inmates", you don't sound like you have much objective credibility. You would be more persuasive if you avoided that sort of language. Focus on swaying the audience, not insulting your opponents.

    3. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Charter schools in most states are required to select their students using a public random lottery. There is no "cherry picking".

      But what are the rules on the charter schools kicking out "disruptive" kids?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    4. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      They exist to turn a profit. Education should not be for profit.

      Some are run by 501(c)3 non-profits. But even then, I found one organization that operates 2 charter schools and it had a full-time (40 hours/week) attorney on the payroll. Why?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    5. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "They exist to turn a profit. Education should not be for profit."

      Why not? Seriously. If a school can produce better results at a lower cost and make money on the deal, why not? Not all of them will, and the ones that fail should fail. Right now a lot of public schools are failing but there is no accountability, they just keep getting the same funding. In my town one (of five) elementary schools has a principal that virtually everyone (small town) knows is screwing up the school. Good teachers don't want to go there and maneuver to get transferred to another school as soon as possible. Standardized test scores suck. She has not been fired yet (10 years plus).

    6. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They exist to turn a profit. Education should not be for profit.

      Some are run by 501(c)3 non-profits. But even then, I found one organization that operates 2 charter schools and it had a full-time (40 hours/week) attorney on the payroll. Why?

      To prepare for and defend against the inevitable lawsuits, IRS audits, and criminal investigations.

    7. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by waspleg · · Score: 1

      ... and likely a member of a teacher's union with a vested interest in the current lack of accountability.

      I work in IT. No unions. Vested interest? Yea. I'd be out of a job (again - it's not like it doesn't happen anyway). I made that pretty clear I didn't pretend to be completely objective.

      I also work in schools that are already partially charters where the charter can fail under the public school name. I've also seen several failed charter schools roll back in to public and be even worse than they were before they went charter in the first place because of state DoE intervention.

      Charter schools in most states are required to select their students using a public random lottery. There is no "cherry picking".

      Not in my state. Someone else also mentions what has to happen to get rid of disruptive students. I can tell you in the public schools I work at it's bad because the charters have stolen away kids and resources, so to keep the money - which is based on head count - it pretty much takes a felony to get a kid kicked out and sometimes not even then.

      Free advice: By referring to students as "inmates", you don't sound like you have much objective credibility. You would be more persuasive if you avoided that sort of language. Focus on swaying the audience, not insulting your opponents.

      I suggest you stroll through some of your public schools in poor areas. They are prisons, be they fully public or pseudo-public charters.

    8. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      If they really wanted to help, they'd spend the money commissioning the writing of textbooks that anyone can print, copy, or download in ePub format for free. As it is, schools have two options - keep using outdated text books, or spend money on textbooks by taking it out of the budget somewhere else.

      And unlike this project, free textbooks can be scaled out across the nation instead of just a few areas. And save kids the hassle and danger of spinal damage of carrying a ton of books.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    9. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Public teachers' unions are the ones who fight year and year out for ironclad job security even for incompetent teachers who don't know the material and go through the motions with no passion for their work.

      Now charter schools offer an alternative, so the teachers unions are up in arms. Guess what people -- you reap what you sow.

    10. Re:Charter schools are parasites. by jcr · · Score: 1

      Education should not be for profit.

      Why not? What makes it any different from any other service?

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  9. Smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's fund each other's tax deductible charities since the government has gotten wise to us funding our own charities. If you fund mine I'll fund yours.

  10. BFD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Billionaires giving millions to schools founded by other billionaires where still more billionaires will pay millions to send their kids.

    Excuse me if I withhold my rapturous joy.

  11. teachers want the profit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think there should be profit in education. However, teachers want that profit for themselves, and teachers can generally make the argument the profit should go to them.

  12. Nouveau by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

    What's with rich people any more? They're all giving hundreds of millions to each others' charities and patting themselves on the back. At least Donald Trump has the right idea. You get people to donate to your foundation, put most of it right in your pocket, give your wife and kids a little taste, bribe some state attorneys general to not prosecute you for fraud, and then use the rest to buy a six-foot oil painting of your self. That's the kind of avarice I can relate to as a patriotic American.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com...

    https://www.washingtonpost.com...

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  13. Either this or spaceships by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The article seems to disparage the idea that billionaires might be using their money to improve education (even if it is their own vision). So what? Maybe they will succeed.

  14. Pay taxes by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    Can't we make them pay taxes, instead of letting them directing money wherever they feel it is good? This is a new form of aristocracy.

    1. Re:Pay taxes by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      Absolutely! How dare hey spend their own money in noble causes that they select without government mandate!

    2. Re:Pay taxes by manu0601 · · Score: 1

      Remember that tax spending is supposed to be directed toward citizen general interest, which is supposed to be determined by democratic process.

      There are two "supposed" in above sentence because the system is heavily corrupted in some countries. But letting a few select people decide where money should go has even less chance to serve the general interest. Key point is that people who decide cannot ever be revoked if citizen are unhappy about their decisions.

    3. Re:Pay taxes by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Absolutely! How dare hey spend their own money in noble causes that they select without government mandate!

      That's fine with me, so long as you give the poor access to the same mechanisms. I should be able to specify that my tax money will not be spent on bombing brown people for oil, for example.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Pay taxes by MrLogic17 · · Score: 1

      Whoosh.

      The solution to government control and burocracy is not more government control and burocracy.
      Non-rich people can, and do, give to charitable causes. If you consider donating time as a non-zero valued item, the poor and middle class give far more to charitable causes than the rich.

      Your need to stop thinking that government is the only answer.

  15. Crooks, all of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly the OP knows nothing about this issue. Sigh. Disgusting.

  16. And history repeats itself by jenningsthecat · · Score: 2

    U.S. education, it seems, is becoming The Game of Billionaires.

    Public education as it exists in America today was instituted by the robber barons for the purpose of producing compliant, unimaginative, mentally and experientially stunted citizens to constitute an easily managed, reflexively obedient industrial workforce that would have insufficient independence and free thought to upset the long range plans and investments of the industrialists.

    Charter schools supported and molded by the likes of Gates, Zuckerberg, and Jobs are just the latest manifestation of a century-old ongoing process in which the ultra-rich manipulate the minds and vocations of the rest of the population.

    I strongly recommend reading Gatto's "The Underground History of American Education", (available as a PDF file here) - I found it to be an eye-opening experience. 'Sheeple' get a lot of grief here on Slashdot; Gatto's work explains why there are so many of them. You might also discover that you have a lot more in common with those sheeple than you realize - I know I did.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    1. Re:And history repeats itself by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      At last, a use for YouTubes speed control. Try 1.25x to stay awake.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  17. And history repeats itself by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

    U.S. education, it seems, is becoming The Game of Billionaires.

    Public education as it exists in America today was instituted by the robber barons for the purpose of producing compliant, unimaginative, mentally and experientially stunted citizens to constitute an easily managed, reflexively obedient industrial workforce that would have insufficient independence and free thought to upset the long range plans and investments of the industrialists.

    Charter schools supported and molded by the likes of Gates, Zuckerberg, and Jobs are just the latest manifestation of a century-old ongoing process in which the ultra-rich manipulate the minds and vocations of the rest of the population.

    I strongly recommend reading Gatto's "The Underground History of American Education", (available as a PDF file here) - I found it to be an eye-opening experience. 'Sheeple' get a lot of grief here on Slashdot; Gatto's work explains why there are so many of them. You might also discover that you have a lot more in common with those sheeple than you realize - I know I did.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  18. WRONG! Meg Whitman is not CEO of HP by chromaexcursion · · Score: 1

    Meg Whitman got fired years ago!
    I agree with the other comments, charter schools are parasites.
    Alternatives in education need to be part of the system, not an alternative.
    Of course that means actually funding schools properly.
    that seems to be a real problem for some people. I don't have kids, and I have no problem paying the slightly outrageous school taxes. does help property value.

    1. Re:WRONG! Meg Whitman is not CEO of HP by iamacat · · Score: 1

      I don't have kids

      No wonder you think public school system is workable.

    2. Re:WRONG! Meg Whitman is not CEO of HP by theodp · · Score: 1

      Oops, good catch - after all the corporate entity shuffling, Meg Whitman is now President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

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