TED Talk
Filmed: March 2011
Speaker: Bill Gates
URL: http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_how_state_budgets_are_breaking_us_schools.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-03-08&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email
Summary: America's school systems are funded by the 50 states. In this talk, Gates says that state budgets are riddled with accounting tricks that disguise the true cost of health care and pensions and weighted with worsening deficits -- with the financing of education at the losing end. Must it come down to choosing between the old or young?
Bill Gates is one intelligent individual. I think we should listen to, well… everything he just said. I liked how he presented the budget dilemma in terms of investing in the elderly versus investing in the youth. In a way, it breaks down into a question of quantity versus quality. It seems that we, according to the budget, are more interested in extending a few years of life to our own generation instead of enhancing the future of the generations to come. This shortsightedness could snowball pretty easily.
ReplyDeletePutting a business model into a classroom is problematic but...using a business model to manage the administration side of education and support teachers and classrooms needs to happen. Private schools are forced into this model because they are basically a business which relies on putting out a good product. If a private school isn't performing, the students go elsewhere and the doors close. Not so with a poor public school. Public education has gotten away with inefficiencies which I think someone like Bill Gates can help.
ReplyDeletePossibly a voucher system like the inner city minorities are supportive of to make schools compete for business? (Parents, not test scores, would decide which schools thrive or get put out of business.)
I like Doug's comment that private schools often thrive off of a business model because they are in fact a business. They are in the business of maiking thousands and thousands of dollars, and many of the parties involved make sure there are high standards for education and performance because so much is at stake. For instance, parents may be much more involved in their children's education because they are paying an arm and a leg for it. Administrators and teachers care because they are paid based off of enrollment, and want students to succeed so that enrollment remains high. Students have a stake because they are going to be working in an environment that values education, secondary education and "going places in life", so they may be highly motivated to perform.
ReplyDeleteWith all that being said, that feeling of investment is simply not present in the public school system because the parties are not involved in the same ways. I suppose the bigger issue to address is now can a business model work for a public entity such as schools? And how can the government get the community to make an emotional and physical "investment" in the public school system?
Kevy, I must respectfully disagree with your comments on "listening" to everything Mr. Gates has to say about education.
ReplyDeleteThere is no question that he is a rather brilliant business man, and what he has to say in this particular video is not particularly off point. However, while he may understand the business side of school, he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about when it comes to the educational standards side of the issue.
His continued push for standardized tests, merit pay and larger class sizes shows that he is quite out of touch with the realities of education.
The money side of public education should absolutely be treated like a business. That starts with an entire restructuring of the pay scale and benefits (in my opinion).
But teachers should not be treated like factory employees. The language of factories is often implicit in the way that we talk about education. The job of the teacher is to pump out quality goods in an efficient manner. Doesn't sound too bad in itself.
In fact, and perhaps I am overly idealistic here, teachers should be more entrepreneur than employee. Administrations more governing bodies than bosses.
The point is, and really we could write a book on this topic, Mr. Gates is flat out wrong in the way that he often approaches education(again, my opinion. I can see the other side of the argument; I simply disagree with the stance on moral grounds). Not always is he wrong, in this video for example, but often.