Gates, Bloomberg, Buffet, Oprah And Jeb Bush Meet At Gates Foundation Conference In South Carolina

From a local affiliate in South Carolina:

CHARLESTON, SC -Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world, is spending time in the Lowcountry.

  WCBD  confirmed the American business magnate is at the Sanctuary on Kiawah Island.

Suspicion was raised when nearly 20 very expensive jets were seen lined up at the Charleston International Airport on Johns Island.

Officials with the Beach Company confirmed to WCBD that other big names such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, TV host Oprah Winfrey and Billionaire Warren Buffet flew into the Charleston Executive airport on Johns Island Wednesday night.

Other prominent people said to also be staying there this weekend are  Jeb Bush and Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

 The famous guests were attending a two day long conference led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Officials say the meeting was about the foundation Gates and his wife Melinda run.

The meeting rented out the entire Sanctuary Hotel on the gated island. Security has been high throughout the entire week, keeping the public away from the hotel.

WCBD spoke to the Mayor of Kiawah by phone who said the town is happy to serve as host to the event.

"We wish them luck with what they're doing," Mayor Charles Lipuma said. "If they want to play golf, they couldn't have picked a better weekend. We are glad we could offer them great weather."

They weren't there to play golf, you can be sure of that.

They were there to continue destroying the public education system, among other policy goals

Shame they had to go to such lengths to try and keep their meeting secret.

Reminds me a little of these guys.

Or these guys.

At any rate, I love the line in the story about suspicion being raised that something was up when 20 "very expensive jets" were seen lined up at the Charleston Executive airport on Johns Island.

I wonder how that Save The World From Global Warming initiative Gates and Bloomberg are heading is going?

Private jets are good for the environment, yes?

A Fecal Matter Sandwich

That's what the Obama administration education policy is serving up, according to Jeffbinnc at Open Left.

He has a nice summary of all the recent criticism against the "More and Better Tests!" policy we are getting from the Obama administration and will hear even more about during the State of the Union.

Let's face it - the people pushing the high stakes testing reform movement stand to make billions from the test prep, the test administration and the test creation.

Bill Gates wants more technology in the classroom.

He makes computer software, doesn't he?

Hmmm....

The ed reformers at the Washington Post want students to take high stakes tests several times a year in every subject and hold teachers and schools accountable for those tests.

The Washington Post company owns Kaplan Test Prep company, doesn't it?

Hmmm....

The hedge fund industry is all excited about market-driven reforms that promote non-unionized charters run by for-profit companies or education management organizations beholden to Wall Street.

Goldman Sachs and Warren Buffett are two Wall Streeters with a piece of that action, aren't they?

Hmmm....

Joel Klein and Rupert Murdoch say in order for public education to enter the 21st century, students need to be educated online by computer programs rather than in school buildings by teachers.

Rupert Murduch just bought an online education company that he wants Joel Klein to help run, didn't he?

Hmmm....

The nexus between profit and education reform, or perhaps I should say between corruption and education reform, is pretty clear.

But you want hear any of that from the Education Shyster-in-Chief this week at the SOTU address.

Instead he'll offer some jive about how reform is essential to the economic future of the nation.

And he will be right, sort of - but what he won't be saying is that the economic future he will be talking about is not the nation, but rather the corporate overlords like Gates, Buffett, Goldman Sachs and the other Wall Streeters and hedge fundies who own this country and who satnd to make billions from his policies.

Melinda Gates Steps Down From Washington Post/Kaplan University Board

I guess the NY Times expose on the fraud that is the Washington Post/Kaplan company got to Ms. Gates.

Here is how the Washington Post covered her resignation:

Melinda French Gates, philanthropist and wife of billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has resigned from the Washington Post Co. board of directors, the company announced Friday.

Gates, a former Microsoft manager who runs the multibillion-dollar Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her husband, had joined the board in 2004.

She did not give a reason for stepping down. A family spokesman said she was spending more time than before working and traveling for the foundation.

The Post board's chairman, Donald E. Graham, said it is "sad at losing her."

The Post's Kaplan education unit has come under harsh scrutiny in news reports quoting former Kaplan employees who said that they had been instructed to use the Gates name to persuade students to take classes at the company.

Gates said in a statement released by The Post that she has "been impressed with The Washington Post Company's work with Kaplan, whose new approaches to education are allowing students opportunities that would otherwise not be possible."

She also said the "mission" of The Post "remains as vital today as at any time in its history."

Gates and her husband are close to Warren E. Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway company owns about 24 percent of the Post Co. Buffett has pledged to donate much of his fortune to the Gates Foundation.

The Post's board, which includes Buffett, now has 11 members.

It's a shame Gates wasn't honest about the reason she was stepping down.

It doesn't take a genius to see that the Times expose was the reason.

She could have done the education reform movement some good by actually criticizing the Post/Kaplan Company for their fraudulent activities stealing money from students and taxpayers.

But to be honest, it would probably be difficult for Gates to do that.

The nexus between for-profit education companies and the education reform movement has never been more apparent than when Chancellor Klein jumped ship at the NYCDOE to head up Rupert Murdoch's new online for-profit education company this week.

Geoffrey Canada at the Harlem Children's Zone has his own connections to for-profit education companies, having taken $25 million in cash payments from Goldman Sachs, part owner the Art Institutes.

There is a lot of money to be made from the suckers out there and people like Gates, Klein, Canada, Buffet, et al. all know that.

That's why they don't do anything about the kind of fraudulent activity that the Post/Kaplan Company engages in.

In fact, not only don't they do anything about the fraudulent activity, they're not even willing to publicly criticize it.

But I guess it's hard to do that when they're making money off of it themselves.