“This is not the first time Bill Gates has tried to leverage his wealth and fame into a position as a high profile-government education consultant. His track record is terrible. He championed Race to the Top and Common Core, which promoted untested policies and placed new, unfunded mandates on New York’s school districts. For someone who has benefited more from visionary brilliance and forward-thinking than nearly any other living person, his ideas on education are oddly stilted and tired. He loves testing. He trusts bureaucracy. Funding goes to “winners” who hit arbitrary metrics and follow arbitrary guidelines. Bill Gates is unlikely to chart a path forward. He’ll take us on an elaborate, expensive journey back to square one.

“This reminds of me when the governor gave Elon Musk hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare to start a solar panel factory in Buffalo. It didn’t go very well. I think working with famous people may make us feel important. That doesn’t mean it works. I’m all for seeking input on how to get better outcomes and create more dynamic opportunities for our kids, but we need to ask the right people. We should start with the thousands of New York state teachers who have been on the ground working to transition to online learning since March,” said Ra.