Seattle Schools Community Forum

First off, bless Melinda and Bill Gates for being willing to give away money for world health and public education in the U.S.  I applaud anyone who steps up to help.  They are likely helping many people. However, we all know, as citizens in a city where we have more than one billionaire, that while philanthropy is a great thing, these people giveth...and they taketh.   The new mantra is " venture philanthropy" - they expect a return on their investment.  

Danny Westneat's column in the Times this week certainly had a challenge to Bill Gates about class size. Bill, here's an experiment. You and I both have an 8-year-old. Let's take your school and double its class sizes, from 16 to 32. We'll use the extra money generated by that — a whopping $400,000 more per year per classroom — to halve the class sizes, from 32 to 16, at my public high school, Garfield. In 2020, when our kids are graduating, we'll compare what effect it all had. On student achievement. On teaching quality. On morale. Or that best thing of all, the "environment that promotes relationships between teachers and students." First, he explains how Lakeside, where Bill went to high school, thinks about class size: "Ask any alumnus what the best thing about Lakeside is," the school's brochure urges. "And they will likely mention an environment that promotes relationships between teachers and students through sma...