Bill Gates does a lot of good work these days, so much that one can almost forgive him for Vista, and ME, and…

But let’s not be distracted. His philanthropy is not only a genuine benefit to millions across the world, but as well sets a wonderful example to the hard-working and the fortunate, in stark contrast to the behaviors of certain masters-of-the-universe Wall-Street types.

But I have to believe he’s got the wrong end of the stick this time around.  We already know that seemingly-rational people don’t always have the best judgment.  That might be the case here.

In his Annual Letter for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we’re particularly interested in what he has to say about education in the U.S.

He talks about his high school experience and about some of the work the foundation has been doing, and the value of good teachers (”If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.”).

But this statement really stands out:

Our goal as a nation should be to ensure that 80 percent of our students graduate from high school fully ready to attend college by 2025. This goal will probably be more difficult to achieve than anything else the foundation works on, because change comes so slowly and is so hard to measure. Unlike scientists developing a vaccine, it is hard to test with scientific certainty what works in schools. If one school’s students do better than another school’s, how do you determine the exact cause? But the difficulty of the problem does not make it any less important to solve.

This goal is perhaps not impossible, though, as stated, very, very difficult. We have to question whether this goal is desirable and what the effects of such an accomplishment would be.

Charles Murray, in Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality, argues pretty convincingly that too many are already going to college — more than are truly capable of college-level work — and that we ought to be developing alternatives to college for those who want to follow other paths.

Excerpts from the Gates letter also appear here (WP, 1/28).

On the newest Dylan Release, Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8, my favorites are the breathtaking Girl from the Red River Shore and Tell Ol’ Bill.

Tell Ol’ Bill when he comes home
[That] Anythin’ is worth a try
Tell him that I’m not alone
That the hour has come to do or die.
- Tell Ol’ Bill, Bob Dylan (2005)