Bill Gates

I'm going to save my public voice largely for the issues where I have some depth.

In K-12, almost everybody goes to local schools. Universities are a bit different because kids actually do pick the university. The bizarre thing, though, is that the merit of university is actually how good the students going in are: the SAT scores of the kids going in.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend a whole lot of time following soccer. But as I have traveled around the world to better understand global development and health, I've learned that soccer is truly universal. No matter where I go, that's what kids are playing. That's what people are talking about.

The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: 'Does your teacher use class time well?' and, 'When you're confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?'

Unfortunately, the highly curious student is a small percentage of the kids.

K to 12 is partly about babysitting the kids so the parents can do other things.

India has over 20 percent of the kids born in the world. And they move around a lot.

The kids are a big part of my schedule.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

The outside perception and inside perception of Microsoft are so different. The view of Microsoft inside Microsoft is always kind of an underdog thing.

When Ford sells a car, a dealer isn't allowed to take out the engine and put a different one in. When a newsstand sells the Washington Post, no one can go to the newsstand and pay them to rip out the classified section and put their own classified section in - if they could, they would do so.

A lot of the things that will really improve the world fortunately aren't dependent on Washington doing something different.