To the Editor:
I know Education Week gets funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and well you should, but this is ridiculous. Your Oct. 11, 2006, In Perspective article, “Gates Learns to Think Big,” is as puffy as it gets, with nary a critical thought in it.
Aren’t you folks even a bit concerned about the unconstrained power of the megafund and its tremendous influence, not only over public school districts, but over other foundations as well? Aren’t you at all worried about the undemocratic nature of some Gates reforms? Aren’t you even a little afraid of a new bureaucracy arising with little or no public accountability?
Aren’t you concerned, moreover, that such power and bureaucracy will limit the foundation community’s ability to foster innovation? I guess not.
Michael Klonsky
Chicago, Ill.
