Irony: Gates Foundation Blasts Database Opponents for ‘Outsized Influence’

by Aaron Dykes

The world’s biggest foundations – with their fingers in every conceivable pie – are accusing a college association of ‘outsized influence’ over education.

INSIDE HIGHER ED reported on a Gates Foundation-funded New America Foundation white paper attacking the critics of a massive federal database that would track college students throughout their education and even into their workforce careers, compiling personal data and salary info!

INSIDE HIGHER ED wrote:

“A new report published Tuesday by the New America Foundation criticizes several higher education lobbying associations for standing in the way of a proposed federal database that would provide more expansive data about how colleges are performing.”

“Such a database would be able to track students as they move into higher education and through college — or, increasingly, multiple colleges — and into the work force. It would produce more robust information about student outcomes, such as graduation rates and salary information.”

The Gates Foundation & New America report criticized the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities — whose board is made up entirely of university presidents — of having “outsized influence” in the debate by opposing the database.

The report argues that NAICU enjoys an “outsized influence” over federal policy, generally, as well as within the “Big Six” leading nonprofit higher education associations.

“The private nonprofit higher education lobby bears substantial responsibility for the implementation of the student unit record ban, and for keeping Americans in the dark about how well federally subsidized colleges and universities are serving their students,” the New America report says.

Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation stands as the largest non-for-profit foundation in history, and has its fingers in every conceivable pie — attempting to socially engineer the population, and steer health care and education nationwide… At the same time, the New America Foundation is chaired by Google’s Eric Schmidt — a firm which has amassed massive amounts of data on individuals across the globe, and defied government attempts to restrict it. New America also holds numerous important individuals who have attended the secretive Bilderberg meetings, belong to the Council on Foreign Relations, are members of the Soros family, or who have worked for the Gates Foundation & Obama Administration.

So giant global entities with conflicting interests in education, health care, finance, industry and politics – they play an appropriate role in weighing in about a database that would track college kids throughout the rest of their lives. But a large college association, on the other hand, should stay out of such business, less it hold too much influence. Huh?