> When we get into a field, we do take a point of view, and raising controversy is a symptom. Fortunately, there is what’s called the charter school format that lets you try new things. The system is good at shutting down the ones that don’t work and replicating the ones that do. The big actor is government. If somebody says somebody is too big, it would be strange to point to us.<p>What a load of shit. What Gates is trying to do isn't using a small number of charter schools as a laboratory for discovering news approaches to education that are more effective, which was the original idea of charter schools. Rather, he is trying to replace most of the public schools for low-income minorities with privatized charter schools, and he wants to be the one person who gets to create the criteria that determine whether a given school is doing well or not.<p>Here are the actual criticisms of his agenda that the article is likely referring to (with an added quote on his malaria work to illustrate the point):<p><a href="http://pastebin.com/XUxCmdiN" rel="nofollow">http://pastebin.com/XUxCmdiN</a>