From the NY Times:
“A handful of outspoken teachers helped persuade state lawmakers this spring to eliminate seniority-based layoff policies. They testified before the legislature, wrote briefing papers and published an op-ed article in The Indianapolis Star.”
“They described themselves simply as local teachers who favored school reform. One sympathetic state representative, Mary Ann Sullivan, said, ‘They seemed like genuine, real people versus the teachers’ union lobbyists.’ They were, but they were also recruits in a national organization, Teach Plus, financed significantly by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…”
“The foundation paid a New York philanthropic advisory firm $3.5 million “to mount and support public education and advocacy campaigns.” It also paid a string of universities to support pieces of the Gates agenda. Harvard, for instance, got $3.5 million to place “strategic data fellows” who could act as ‘entrepreneurial change agents”‘ in school districts in Boston, Los Angeles and elsewhere. The foundation has given to the two national teachers’ unions – as well to groups whose mission seems to be to criticize them.”