The world’s richest man is doubling down on the U.S. public education system.
Bill Gates, with $87.7 billion to his name, announced plans Thursday for his foundation to invest another $1.7 billion in public education, the Washington Post reported. Gates said the funds would go toward experimenting with new methods of teaching.
“The role of philanthropy here is not to be the primary funder, but rather to fund pilots, to fund new ideas, to let people — it’s always the educators coming up with the ideas — to let them try them out and see what really works super well and get those to scale,” Gates said while delivering a keynote address at a Cleveland schools conference, according to the Post.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested at least some $3.4 billion already toward the cause.
In June, Gates made his largest donation since 2000, about $4.6 billion worth of Microsoft shares. The donation was expected to go toward the foundation.