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Yes, Gates gives $Millions in free computers to schools.
Now, the Fine Print: acceptance comes at the cost of purchasing exclusive IT contracts through Microsux.
I've discussed the economics of this before. What's the point of a school district getting $500,000 of "free" computers only to spend $3 Million on IT contracts?
The school district takes a net loss of $2.5 Million.
It would have have cheaper for tax-payers to just buy $500,000 in computers and get the Geek Squad service plan through Worst Buy.
All of Gates' give-aways come with strings attached.
And "right" on economics?
Gates is into things like monopolies.
That's not good for America....
Mircea
For software, service and support and upgrades.
And schools are still years behind in catching up.
I had a Computer Tech class in a MS a year ago (long term sub job).
They were still using MS Office 2005 or so (no extra money to keep upgraded).
Talk about crap.
The curriculum was to learn database, spreadsheet, presentation and word processing.
I took them "into the cloud" and we used all the CURRENT Google programs available.
Schools are also locked in with their email and MS Exchange.
One smart school district I worked for chucked it all in favor of Apple and gmail.
The initial cost of hardware is steep but they don't nickel and dime you to death with proprietary software and there's a host of free stuff that works on Mac.
Education "reformers" have to have the shortest memories in any industry. Gates has blown a ton of money on these reformers ideas. He wasted 2 Billion on "small learning communities" or some such nuttiness espoused by those very distant friends of Obama, the Ayers brothers. Gates letter from his foundation back in 2009 admitted their failure and found what we've known since the 70's. Small classrooms do not make that much of a difference. Gates should have taken the view on education that his competitor Jobs did, stay out.
"The Gates Foundation has poured millions into education--$268 million in 2010 alone, according to one report I saw. As a casual observer the foundation's approach seems to be whatever works, ideology be damned. It's tough to get a read on Bill Gates, but he seems to be mostly left of center. I suspect he may be to the right on economics, and left on everything else. He has been a big time supporter of gun control in Washington state."
I think some of these guys just march to the beat of their own drummer. A schoolmate of my oldest has pledged the majority of his fortune to charity and set up a foundation to promote charter schools. A retired 30+ year old with 3 billion (egads, where did I go wrong, lol). I have no idea what his political leanings are either, my guess is compassionate capitalist.
I had a Computer Tech class in a MS a year ago (long term sub job).
They were still using MS Office 2005 or so (no extra money to keep upgraded).
Talk about crap
You should have brought in an abacus and a few maps with the Soviet Union still on them to complete the lesson.
"The Gates Foundation has poured millions into education--$268 million in 2010 alone, according to one report I saw. As a casual observer the foundation's approach seems to be whatever works, ideology be damned. It's tough to get a read on Bill Gates, but he seems to be mostly left of center. I suspect he may be to the right on economics, and left on everything else. He has been a big time supporter of gun control in Washington state."
I think some of these guys just march to the beat of their own drummer. A schoolmate of my oldest has pledged the majority of his fortune to charity and set up a foundation to promote charter schools. A retired 30+ year old with 3 billion (egads, where did I go wrong, lol). I have no idea what his political leanings are either, my guess is compassionate capitalist.
High Schools in Texas have spent $40 million on football stadiums. A high school about 70 miles from where I live spent $110 million to build a state of the arts high school. 30 years ago the high school was mediocre and in the middle of the pack among 200 or so high schools in the state. Now they are in the top 10. They arent sitting around like so many school districts trying to spend less money. Instead they recognize that their children will be competing against China, India, Japan, etc. Many of the kids from that school have gone to work at Microsoft. The town I live in which likes to vote down bond issues the kids will be lucky to find a job baling hay. Gates does recognize we are competing against the world not just against someone bucking hay and a machine picking up hay. That seems to be where a lot of conservatives are...everyone can go buck hay.
Trusting a (pardon me) 'compassionate capitalist' to actually care about anything other than his global monopoly game on the order of Gates is like trusting a furnace not to melt your kids' ice cream.
I wonder if Lamar Alexander is on a consulting board somewhere in the Gates Foundation? He wanted privatized public schools replete with TVs blaring candy bar commercials as part of the curricula back in the 1990's. Will MS put banners in the Common Core software advertising Office 2016 and Win 10 too?
Education "reformers" have to have the shortest memories in any industry. Gates has blown a ton of money on these reformers ideas. He wasted 2 Billion on "small learning communities" or some such nuttiness espoused by those very distant friends of Obama, the Ayers brothers. Gates letter from his foundation back in 2009 admitted their failure and found what we've known since the 70's. Small classrooms do not make that much of a difference. Gates should have taken the view on education that his competitor Jobs did, stay out.
Wouldn't say "wasted" as Mr. and Mrs. Gates along with MS receive very decent tax write offs for their donations regardless of how they turn out.
teachers are afraid technology is going to eliminate their jobs along with the brick and mortar prisons known as schools and instead of embracing new ways to learn, they will fight tooth and nail to maintain the stau$ quo
Gates is for the Common Core which many states are not for and are opting out. This includes both red and blue states.
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