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Gates, Broad, Duncan, and Oprah form Quaternareate to Deliver Teacher Excellence
by Susan Ohanian
Researchers at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and Oprah Winfrey Network have built a robot that can self-assemble and deliver Common Core curriculum without human intervention.
A bulletin from US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) indicates that GET grants (Get Excellent Teachers) are available immediately to states signing up for the two-step grass roots plan developed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and Oprah Winfrey Network--and approved by the U. S. Department of Education.
"This is grass roots democracy at its best!" said Arne Duncan.
Oprah told NBC news, "I'm so excited to be a part of this! It's delicious!"
The Wall Street Journal quoted Campbell Brown, "Finally we'll get the teachers we need."
On Twitter, Louisiana Governor and presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal Tweeted, "I'd like GET if these Excellent Teachers could be de-programmed from Common Core."
Saying mayors shouldn't be left out of this important initiative, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the formation of a new non-profit organization to address the issue of school staffing: Go GET 'em.
Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers and rabid supporter of the Common Core, says he'll support GET if they pay dues.
The pop-up devices can assemble themselves from flat, composite materials cheaply and efficiently. And they deliver the goods. It takes about four minutes for a Common Core-ready robot teacher to emerge from a flat sheet of 8 1/2 by-11-inch polystyrene plastic, similar to that used in Shrinky Dinks (see Shrinky Dinks Monster Lab).
The Excellent Teacher comes with a flexible electronic circuit board containing two batteries, two motors and a microcontroller--to be warehoused at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
US Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe urged all interested parties to request GET deliveries through the US Postal Service and thereby end the agency's deficit. "GET could be a game-changer," he said.
Stephen Krashen Comment:
You forgot the most important fact about the GET robots. They cost $25,000 each, with a yearly maintenance charge. Schools should understand, however, that this is a bargain. A big savings the first year, because each one replaces a teacher (avg salary a little more than 50G), and a bigger savings after that, because schools only pay a service charge.
IN a secret document, a study done by GET Group scientists says that a new GET will be required every three years, just like your laptop. (1) Each replacement will cost about $10,000 more than the previous model.
Replacing 1/3 of all teachers with GET robots = 25 billion (one million teachers).
This increases to 35 billion after three years.
It won't take long before GET gets the entire 600 billion k-12 school budget for the country.
(1) Actually the scientists were untrained in computer science. All had their training in finance and economics. The committee report ordered the scientists to make new GET robots necessary every three years and produce arguments justifying the 10G increase each time.
— Susan Ohanian
blog
2014-08-08
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