Joel Klein’s Lesson Plan - Joe Nocera - NYTimes.com

Joel Klein’s Lesson Plan - Joe Nocera - NYTimes.com

Mr. Klein has had another powerful business ally: Bill Gates. The reason Mr. Brill went to interview Mr. Gates was that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had poured a staggering $150 million into the New York public school system. The irony, of course, is inescapable: the bitterest of enemies during the Microsoft trial, the two men have made common cause to improve the lives of New York’s public school students.

Although I was unable to speak to Mr. Gates on such short notice, Vicki Phillips of the Gates Foundation said that the foundation supported Mr. Klein’s efforts because “we saw very impressive gains in New York.”

To be sure, Mr. Gates and Mr. Klein are aware of the irony. Once, when Mr. Klein had dinner with the Gateses at their home in Seattle, “they showed me a pinball machine they used to call the Joel Klein,” he recalled with a laugh. In September 2003, Mr. Gates and Mr. Klein went to a school in the Bronx to announce a $51 million grant from the Gates Foundation. After the event, a teacher went up to Mr. Klein and said, “Imagine what he might have given if you hadn’t sued him.”

Although Mr. Klein is joining the News Corporation, he insisted that he was not abandoning education. “I am part of the reform movement,” he said. “That is not going to change.”