Bill Gates touts Teach for America, McDonald’s burgers at MIT

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Patron Bill Gates today told Massachusetts Institute of Technology students that there are opportunities for the school's brightest minds to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.

There are less than 100 scientists working on malaria, a disease that kills more than a million people a year, Gates said.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of $33.5 billion, supports research and programs in health, education and technology in the United States and developing countries.

Gates stressed that investing in schools is crucial to improving the standard of living. But he said it’s not necessary to go outside the U.S. to work on failing schools.

Gates had no idea of how poorly our education is working, he said. Over 30 percent of kids drop out of high school and if you are a minority the number is over 50 percent. Of the ones who complete high school, many of them have had a really poor education.

Gates hailed the 96 recent MIT graduates who joined Teach for America, a national nonprofit that human resources outstanding college graduates to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools. Every one of those kids who chose the program would have had other opportunities that would have been far more productive, Gates said