Gates in charge of education?

(and not the Secretary of Defense, either)

I was reading this analysis of states' chances for Race to the Top funding yesterday when it occurred to me: since when did Bill Gates become an educational guru?

The column in essence says (and I've read this elsewhere) that if your state didn't get funded by the Gates Foundation to pull together your application, well, then your state's chances of getting funding aren't good.

Since when was this country's educational system run by Bill Gates and his foundation? When exactly did he and those he's hired become the top educational experts in the country?

As far as I can tell this (like much else) has to do with who has enough money to boss other people around. There are supposed to be other values in a democracy.

And the irony of the man who was sued by the federal government for a monopoly now endorsing competition in public education hasn't escaped me, either.