By Anthony Cody.

It has been a bit of a challenge this past decade to maintain a spirit of hope in the face of the immense concentration of wealth and power we have seen. I do not need to remind you of the details – we all know the big picture.

But I have, for the past four years or so, been focused on the role of one multi-billionaire in particular. In the introduction to my new book, The Educator and the Oligarch, aTeacher Challenges the Gates Foundation,  I explain a bit of the background for the book.

I did not enter the arena to pursue Bill Gates. He and the other giants of corporate style reform came to me, in the school where I worked for 18 years.

My school struggled with the endless pressure to raise test scores, the constant threat that the students would not improve enough, and then the school would be closed, as were many Oakland schools.

And so it was that corporate reform came to my school and my district.  The reformers came into professional organizations, and even the union to which I belonged. And they brought over and over again the message that my students, colleagues and the schools in which we worked, were failures, and needed to be replaced. My years there taught me well. I know they are wrong, and I am prepared to show why.

In the fall of 2010, an assault was unleashed on the teaching profession and the institution of public education in America. The assault was led by one of the wealthiest people on the planet, who was prepared to devote billions of dollars for a sustained campaign. This was the raw power of wealth at work.

The most visible vehicle was a highly charged documentary film, entitled Waiting for Superman. Bill Gates appeared in the film and issued a warning.

“We cannot sustain an economy based on innovation unless we have citizens well educated in math, science and engineering. If we fail at this, we won’t be able to compete in the global economy. How strong the country is twenty years from now, and how equitable the country is twenty years from now, will be largely driven by this issue.”

The film also lionized Michelle Rhee, then chancellor of the Washington, DC, public schools, and Geoffrey Canada, founder of charter schools in Harlem. It identified teacher unions and due process as the source of problems for public schools, suggesting that “tenure” meant teachers had jobs for life and could not be fired. The overall message of the film was that if we overcome the resistance of teacher unions, fire the bad teachers, and open more charter schools, then performance by American students will rocket upwards.

Gates pumped $2 million into promoting the film, and also paid NBC to create a multi-day extravaganza called Education Nation to showcase its stars. Add in two episodes of Oprah, plus another of Larry King, and you had full-on media saturation.

But this visible assault was just the tip of the iceberg as Bill Gates, through the Gates Foundation, was already engaged in the most far-reaching public policy campaign ever waged, with the objective of completely transforming every aspect of the educational system in America.

The first review, written by a teacher named Sarah Puglisi, has now been posted. She writes:

If I were in school in study to be a teacher, now, I’d expect a course called “The Corporate Education Model”  and Cody’s book on the reading list. If I were a parent trying to understand my way through schooling my children-I’d read this book. If I were a teacher, school superintendent, or Board Member I’d read this book, and frankly if I were a citizen in a DEMOCRACY I’d definitely want to understand the perspectives of this teacher as he interacts ultimately with the Gates Foundation.

The Educator and the Oligarch is now available for order from your local independent bookseller, or Amazon, or as an e-book, on multiple formats. Many thanks for Denny Taylor of Garn Press for helping bring the book to life.

Please share your reactions to The Educator and the Oligarch below.