Where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will spend education money in next 5 years

CLEVELAND -- Bill Gates wants to see schools connect.

The Microsoft founder said in a keynote speech Thursday in Cleveland that a majority of the millions of dollars the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will spend over the next five years will go to networks of public schools, created to share achievements and failures in teacher development and curricula.

"Our role is to be a catalyst of good ideas," he said.

The speech was part of the 61st Conference of the Great City Schools. More than 1,000 people came to Cleveland for the people from urban schools across the country.

Here's where Gates said his foundation would be investing more than $1.7 billion in K-12 education over the next five years.

School networks (about 60 percent)

Gates said the foundation is looking to develop 20 to 30 school networks that can share different ideas, pilot programs and other data to help the group as a whole.

"We need to put the vast amount of money into these networks of public schools ... though we love charter schools," he said, to a round of applause.

These networks could consist of districts or other configurations of schools with similar interests. Gates cited the LIFT Education network in Tennessee, which brings together 12 districts that work on solutions on common problems.

Gates wants to focus on helping schools develop high-quality curricula, which he feels is an underinvested area. He said the foundation aims for teachers at every level of secondary school to have curricula aligned with professional development.

Research and development (about 25 percent)

Gates said there's room to grow in education research and development.

"Broadband access is not the barrier it once was," he said, adding that screen access has also become more widespread.

Less than 1 percent of government spending on education goes to research and development, Gates said, which leaves it open for philanthropists to fund and explore. He said schools can use complex technology, like artificial intelligence, to bring students into learning more intimidating subjects such as math.

Charter schools (about 15 percent)

A chunk of money will also expand of quality charter school options and improve quality at these schools, which he said is already happening in Washington state, where Microsoft is headquartered.

He said attention will be paid particularly to charter schools that address special needs education.

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