This week (11th and 12th) Oprah Winfrey is going to focus on education. Apparently Bill and Melinda Gates one day, KIPP and Kevin Johnson the next. Good right? I guess not because already the listserves are burning up with preemptive charges of bias, calls to arms, we must resist, and so forth…but the shows haven’t even aired…does Oprah have a rep on education I don’t know about? Is she a part of the big conspiracy? She gave some money to SEED but that’s all I really know and in fact have thought she hasn’t done enough to focus on education considering the platform she has…(Disc–I’m on the Gates College Ready Roundtable).
Update: I clearly do not watch enough Oprah. Reader MM, who must, notes that she has been a spokesperson for A Better Chance and has also featured Rafe Esquith, who was an inspiration/mentor for KIPP’s Feinberg and Levin on the show. So, it seems as though she thinks we can do better for kids than we do now…she is part of the conspiracy!