File this one under, “well, duh”.
BizJournals is reporting that SAS’s Jim Goodnight, who when it comes to meddling in education is North Carolina’s version of Bill Gates, has dumped a pile of money into Jeb Bush’s campaign.
A $196,800 donation puts SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight in fifth place as the most generous tech titan thus far in the 2016 election cycle, according to Forbes.
Forbes took a look at technology billionaires and their contributions and found the top five were Larry Ellison (Oracle) with $3 million, Phillip Ragon(Intersystems) with $410,000, H. Ross Perot Jr. (Perot Systems) with $272,000,Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) with $252,700 and Goodnight.A deeper look shows that the agency Goodnight is primarily supporting, Right to Rise, supports Jeb Bush’s campaign for president. It has spent more than $9 million in federal elections for the 2016 cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Goodnight pledged $100,000 to that organization in March, according to the Center’s donor search. Goodnight also pledged $25,000 to the pro-Scott Walker PAC and $5,000 to the Victory & Freedom PAC, affiliated with U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx. He, as well as his wife, Ann, pledged additional donations to the Republican National Committee in April.According to Forbes, Goodnight is worth about $7.7 billion.
Sorry, but all the money from every fat cat in the country will not buy Jeb the nomination.
The Goodnight’s have invested a ton of money into “education non-profits” like BEST NC and the corresponding news outlet PR firm Education NC.
It’s their way of driving the direction of education in our state by circumventing the public and going right to politicians, just like Bill Gates. It also helps them plan for grabbing their share of the education spending windfall. Convenient.
Fun fact: SAS has been a big proponent of Common Core, yet their own school, Cary Academy, doesn’t use it. It’s just fine for us peasants, though.
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I guess we should redistribute every wealthy persons money too!
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