By Daniel Pryzbyla

Contrary to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings's prophetic dictate, "In God we trust - all others bring data," the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did no such thing when offering grants to promote and implement "small high schools." So how did Gates get "God" status without bringing any data to the table?

Actually, he did bring "data" to the table - his wealth. But that was accumulated throughout the years by his business acumen - not years researching theories of education. Gates's Microsoft operating system monopoly currently controls over 95 percent of the computer market, and his personal net worth has now bloomed to $44 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the country. It's no secret wealth has a tendency to trump rules and regulations when and if necessary. Gates, like other wealthy entrepreneurs, didn't amass his fortune tormenting over the poor and less fortunate either. Nor was trying to keep pace with the newest technology fads ever the first item on poverty's shopping list. And if he was just another computer geek in Silicon Valley spouting, "Our schools are obsolete! We need small high schools!" - elected officials and educrats wouldn't give him the time of day. His peers in Silicon Valley trenches view his fortunes from a different perspective also. 

"Silicon Valley geeks dismiss Bill Gates as a follower, not an innovator. But nobody questions his business skills," wrote Fred Vogelstein quoting Oliver Ryan in Fortune magazine's May 2005 cover story about the current operating system battle going on between Microsoft and Google. "Since he co-founded Microsoft 30 years ago, the company has taken on legions of competitors and barely lost a fight." Examples given were "dueling browsers" with Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer, the "battle of the spreadsheets" with Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel, and "war of words" with WordPerfect and Microsoft Word - with Gates overtaking each former leader in the market. (Educators would add Apple's Mac OS, the dominant player in classrooms until Microsoft Windows entered the school market.) "Microsoft has a long, dramatic history of being a fast follower, rarely first in a market but ultimately providing the most accessible and practical solution, then outmarketing competitors," wrote Vogelstein. "The company hasn't always played by the rules, but when it has gone after a market, it has done so quickly and aggressively."

He certainly hasn't been a wallflower while promoting his "small high schools" agenda aggressively either. Often targeted for poverty-ridden, large, "obsolete" public schools in districts under siege already from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) high-stakes testing accountability and spiteful sanctions, conditions were favorable for his "small high schools" venture. With the education "reform" label sewn on its sleeves, who would dare reject Microsoft Bill's "small high schools" supplement? Public school districts not applying for a Gates Foundation grant would border on being sacrilegious.

Milwaukee's "reform" gurus wouldn't let that happen, especially after religious schools were admitted in 1998 into the original small voucher Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). Soon afterward, the national voucher/charter stalwarts gleefully designated the city as an "education flower-pot experiment." Since then, Milwaukee public school district (MPS) "reformers" have been busy trying to expand the voucher program and promote more charter schools - especially "non-instrumentality" charters freed from most state and district oversight and accountability, including NCLB. Their student population increased 26% this year, now totaling 3,660 students while "regular" MPS elementary, middle school and high school enrollments have decreased. "Open enrollment" to other districts increased 15%, from 3,286 students to 3,786. The past 3 years have resulted in severe cutbacks in MPS teaching positions and other personnel, and now even school closures. Not surprisingly, education "reformers" have never protested against these budget cutbacks - they're the benefactors. They weren't about to miss any deadlines filing for a Gates Foundation "small high schools" grant either. This could be another feather in their privatization "reform" cap.

"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a $17 million investment to be used to redesign seven large Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) high schools and create 40 new high-quality small high schools throughout the Milwaukee area," said the Gates Foundation July 15, 2003 press release. "The New Vision of Secondary Education grant aims to expand options for students and parents. Thirty of the 40 new highs schools will be created within or in partnership with MPS.

The additional 10 will be created in conjunction with Alliance for Choices in Education (ACE)." Equally important to the "reformers" was the grant's recipient, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) - not MPS. ".We look forward to working with a host of public and private partners to implement this effort," said Tim Sheehy, MMAC president. In reality it would be the same host of voucher and charter "private partners" already dismantling MPS. With the green light given by their choice for superintendent (CEO) William G. Andrekopoulos at the helm, they also prefer a corporate-style board of anointed trustees instead - all in agreement with their CEO's "reform" directives.

Two of the major voucher/charter leaders and organizations sited in the press release to implement the program were Howard Fuller, ACE chairman; and Daniel Grego, who heads the Technical Assistance & Leadership Center (TALC) in Milwaukee. Fuller also chairs the pro-voucher Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He was the founder and first president of Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), receiving generous funding from the archconservative Lynde and Harry Bradley foundation in Milwaukee and the John Walton (Wal-Mart) foundation, both supporters of vouchers and privatization. According to a 2003 ACE letterhead, Susan Mitchell, a well-known voucher advocate representing American Education Reform Foundation, is "vice chair" of ACE. Dr. Daniel Grego, representing TransCenter of Youth, Inc. at the time, is its Secretary. Other notable board members included Sheehy, representing MMAC; and Maureen Gallagher, representing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. It was noted later the 10 schools under ACE would be created outside MPS - either as private schools or sponsored by the 3 other charter entities in the city granted by state law; UW-Milwaukee, City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC).

TALC - "The new vision of public education," is an offshoot of the TransCenter for Youth, Inc. that Grego ran in earlier years for the non-profit education "CITIES Project" school in Milwaukee. To help keep his education project afloat, it too received grants from the archconservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Beginning in1997, TransCenter received its first two grants totaling $100,000. Thereafter, according to Media Transparency, between the CITIES Project and "support public achievement in Milwaukee" grants, TransCenter received a total of $675,000 through 2003 from the Bradley Foundation. TALC asserts, "School districts do not exclusively provide 'public education' any more, and the end of this monopoly is progressive." And how many anti-public education think-tanks have proclaimed this private "monopoly" analogy before? Its privatization ambition concludes, "We must celebrate this new situation by breaking down barriers between and, in some cases, doing away with obsolete, 'over-schooled' organizational systems, labor/management relationships, and public/private distinctions, if we are to realize a new vision of public education." This too is more bogus claptrap. Meanwhile, "private" will retain its exclusivity, of course. "Doing away with obsolete 'labor/management relationships'" is code for union-busting. Notwithstanding, in the "small high schools" grant proposal, TALC is in "partnership" with MPS.

Although in "partnership," you won't find similar "data" of TALC schools in the MPS 2005-06 budget. "No," answered MPS budget analyst Thomas Back (pronunciation "lock") when asked where it was in the budget. "You will have to see if you can get it from TALC." They didn't have specific school data either, other than names of schools, and it receives $1.5 million annually from the grant to "coordinate" its project. Neither TALC nor the grant foundation was mentioned in the superintendent's short, 6-page budget overview narrative either. "The district will create 40 small high schools during the next five years, with nine expected to open this fall. The schools will offer rigor, relevancy and relationships to our youth.high school reform promises to greatly improve graduation rates for all students." No kudos for Gates or TALC? Maybe it would show favoritism in the new education "marketplace." Later, Andrekopoulos said, "MPS must also examine closely whether it can afford some of the grants it accepts."

The closest inference to the grant was his description "rigor, relevancy and relationships." Gates had used the same 3 R's previously in his "small high schools" speech at the National Governors Association meeting in February, except he used "relevance." Reciting the Microsoft emperor's 3 R's was good enough, and it wasn't Microsoft Word's error.

Most important to Gates, his "small high schools" idea was "outmarketing competitors" - again.

His "small high schools" idea was already "outmarketing competitors" again.