Bill Gates’ ‘Assertive Philanthropy’: Better to Give With Strings Attached or Not at All?

An article in The New York Times this past weekend tried to make sense of all the Gates Foundation funding for education (and, really, there's millions out there). Essentially, Gates' giving is all over the map, though The Times's initial hook zeros in on Teach Plus, a national organization largely funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that works to improve outcomes for urban children by — in the organization's own words —"ensuring that a greater proportion of students have access to effective, experienced teachers."

But the article points out that members of the group — promoting themselves simply as "local teachers who favored school reform" — helped persuade Indiana state lawmakers to eliminate seniority-based layoff policies. They testified before the legislature, wrote briefing papers and published an op-ed article in The Indianapolis Star, according to Times reporter Sam Dillion. One state representative, Mary Ann Sullivan, explained in the article that the Teach Plus teachers “seemed like genuine, real people versus the teachers’ union lobbyists.” Still, their efforts were largely financed by the Gates Foundation.

While the article points out that yes, indeed, Bill Gates has an agenda with education and the money to back it, he has spread his giving widely for education. In fact, his foundation has given to the two national teachers’ unions, as well to groups whose mission seems to be to criticize them. Interestingly, Randi Weingarten, a union president, offered a balanced statement regarding Gate's giving:

“Unlike some foundations that would rather just scapegoat teachers and their unions, Gates understands that teaching is a profession, that you have to invest in and support teachers. That doesn’t mean we agree with everything they do.”

The foundation’s 2009 tax filing, according to the article, runs to 263 pages and includes about 360 education grants. Clearly, it's tough to track all the money and organizations. Still, two other Gates-financed groups, Educators for Excellence and Teach Plus, have worked to increase the voices of newer teachers as an alternative to the official views of the unions.

So, the questions to consider: Is assertive philanthropy really all that new, and how would teachers, parents, and others feel if Gates simply stopped giving?