[no subject]

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

Gates and Broad Team Up For $60 Million Attack on Education
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/education/25schools.html?hp

Those who think Democrats will tweak NCLB 
favorably need to take a close look at the truly 
bi-partisan support for this project. The best 
response to curricula regulations and high-stakes 
tests is to build a mass base of class conscious 
people prepared to take risks, and direct action, 
not merely for school reform, but to address the 
emergence of fascism, and to overturn capitalism. 
Nobody is going to save us but us.




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April 25, 2007


Billionaires Start $60 Million Schools Effort

By 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/david_m_herszenhorn/index.html?inline=nyt-per>DAVID 
M. HERSZENHORN

Eli Broad and 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/bill_gates/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Bill 
Gates, two of the most important philanthropists 
in American public education, have pumped more 
than $2 billion into improving schools. But now, 
dissatisfied with the pace of change, they are 
joining forces for a $60 million foray into 
politics in an effort to vault education high 
onto the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.

Experts on campaign spending said the project 
would rank as one of the most expensive 
single-issue initiatives ever in a presidential 
race, dwarfing, for example, the $22.4 million 
that the Swift Vets and P.O.W.s for Truth group 
spent against Senator 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/john_kerry/index.html?inline=nyt-per>John 
Kerry in 2004, and the $7.8 million spent on 
advocacy that year by 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/aarp/index.html?inline=nyt-org>AARP, 
the lobby for older Americans.

Under the slogan ?Ed in ?08,? the project, called 
Strong American Schools, will include television 
and radio advertising in battleground states, an 
Internet-driven appeal for volunteers and a 
national network of operatives in both parties.

?I have reached the conclusion as has the Gates 
foundation, which has done good things also, that 
all we?re doing is incremental,? said Mr. Broad, 
the billionaire who founded SunAmerica Inc. and 
KB Home and who has long been a prodigious donor 
to Democrats. ?If we really want to get the job 
done, we have got to wake up the American people 
that we have got a real problem and we need real reform.?

Mr. Gates, the chairman of 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/microsoft_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Microsoft, 
responding to questions by e-mail, wrote, ?The 
lack of political and public will is a 
significant barrier to making dramatic 
improvements in school and student performance.?

The project will not endorse candidates ­ indeed, 
it is illegal to do so as a charitable group ­ 
but will instead focus on three main areas: a 
call for stronger, more consistent curriculum 
standards nationwide; lengthening the school day 
and year; and improving teacher quality through merit pay and other measures.

While the effort is shying away from some of the 
most polarizing topics in education, like 
vouchers, charter schools and racial integration, 
there is still room for it to spark vigorous 
debate. Advocating merit pay to reward 
high-quality teaching could force Democratic 
candidates to take a stand typically opposed by 
the teachers unions who are their strong supporters.

Pushing for stronger, more uniform standards, on 
the other hand, could force Republican candidates 
to discuss the potential merits of a national 
curriculum, a concept advocates for states? 
rights deeply oppose and one that President Bush has not embraced.

The initiative will be announced today in South 
Carolina, a day before the first Democratic 
debate. Similar publicity is scheduled for the 
first Republican debate early next month in Simi Valley, Calif.

Mr. Bush made education a major theme in 2000, 
paving the way for the No Child Left Behind law 
and its emphasis on testing. In 1992, President 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_clinton/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Bill 
Clinton proposed an array of education 
initiatives. But this year the issue is 
overshadowed by the war in Iraq, terrorism and health care.

?Right now it?s too low on the list of priorities 
for all the candidates,? Mr. Broad said, ?and our 
job is to get it up on the list.?

The project?s first print advertisement addresses 
the national focus head on, showing a student 
misspelling ?A histery of Irak? on a blackboard. 
?Debating Iraq is tough,? the advertisement says. 
?Spelling it shouldn?t be. America?s schools are 
falling behind. It?s a crisis that takes 
leadership to solve. So to all presidential 
candidates we say, ?What?s your plan to fix our schools?? ?

The effort will be directed by Roy Romer, the 
former Democratic governor of Colorado and the 
recent superintendent of schools in Los Angeles, 
and by Marc Lampkin, 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org>a 
Republican lobbyist and former deputy campaign 
manager for Mr. Bush. It will be financed by the 
billionaires? respective foundations, which they 
established with their wives, Melinda Gates and 
Edythe L. Broad. The 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/g/gates_bill_and_melinda_foundation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Bill 
and Melinda Gates Foundation is far larger, 
having disbursed $1.8 billion in education grants 
compared with $250 million by the Broad Foundation.

Mr. Broad has long been a major political donor, 
primarily to Democrats, and has been particularly 
well known as a friend and supporter of Bill and 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/hillary_rodham_clinton/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Hillary 
Clinton. He has contributed personally to Mrs. 
Clinton?s campaign as well as to other Democratic candidates.

Mr. Gates also gives handsomely, though to 
campaigns in both parties. The two men emphasized 
that their education advocacy was nonpartisan.

Supporters of the project also include 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/bob_kerrey/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Bob 
Kerrey, the former Democratic senator from 
Nebraska; Ken Mehlman, the former Republican 
Party chairman; and 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/louis_v_jr_gerstner/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Louis 
V. Gerstner, the former chief executive of 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/international_business_machines/index.html?inline=nyt-org>I.B.M. 
Several of the presidential candidates yesterday 
applauded the billionaires? effort, but some 
bristled at the notion that they were not paying 
sufficient attention to education.

?I think 70 days into a campaign that has yet to 
choose any nominees for either party, to make a 
sweeping kind of analysis that they are not 
talking about education is probably a little 
premature,? said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for 
former Gov. 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/mitt_romney/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Mitt 
Romney of Massachusetts, a Republican. ?If 
anybody goes onto the campaign trail with 
Governor Romney, they?ll recognize that education 
is an important issue to him and to voters.?

A campaign spokesman for Hillary Clinton said 
Mrs. Clinton was pleased that the issue would get ?much-needed attention.?

Senator 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/christopher_j_dodd/index.html?inline=nyt-per>Christopher 
J. Dodd, a Democratic presidential candidate who 
has proposed legislation calling for tougher and 
more uniform education standards, issued a 
statement praising the Strong American Schools 
effort. ?I look forward to including elements of 
the Gates-Broad initiative in the current 
dialogue on how to improve our nation?s schools,? Mr. Dodd said.

Bill Hogan, a senior fellow at the Center for 
Public Integrity and director of the Buying of 
the President 2008 project, which is scrutinizing 
the influence of money in the campaign, said the 
new effort could prove remarkable in its spending level.

?If we are talking about efforts in presidential 
campaigns to promote discussion or debate of an 
issue, there has been nothing like this,? Mr. 
Hogan said. ?This would be off the charts.?