I cannot argue with some of Mr. Gates tremendous accomplishments. Why would a "titan of capitalism" make a statement like that? I think, from what I am reading lately, that he is philosophically bankrupt, although some points in his article I agree with. More words and deeds from Bill will tell the story.
I agree there is always a danger of one going elitist and socialist in their prescriptions. Just because someone is great in one area doesn't always necessarily transfer to other areas, but neither should we automatically disqualify him either. At least Gates is defining the level of threat out there that we ignore at our peril.
His overall point seems to be that we cannot afford to leave any children behind as is occurring so dramatically now both for the students involved and the country. The numbers of graduates in science, math, engineering that China and India are posting may always exceed ours, but just as England is able to hold her own today percentage-wise, we need to be able to do the same for national security and economic prosperity reasons. We must muster the political will to rise to this challenge and design a system that will work.
He cites many schools in his speech as examples of where these designs are working. It would be interesting to know the details of what is different and working in those cases. Gates also acknowledges that the top percentage here are still as good or better than anywhere in the world.
I'm not sure how the vision coming out of this National Education Summit sponsored by the National Governors Association agrees with or differs from GWB's "No Child Left Behind," but Gates and GWB seem to agree on not leaving any children behind as it is currently designed into our school curriculums.