The Huffington Post reported in November 2013 that there were 11 people who were greatly influencing education yet have never taught. That list was comprised of: Arnie Duncan, Bill Gates, David Coleman, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Harkin, Rupert Murdoch, Janet Napolitano, Wendy Kopp, Kevin Johnson, Cory Booker, and Mark Zuckerberg. Other givers of big money with very tight strings attached, such as Eli Broad and the Walton (Walmart) family, as well as front groups such as Families for Excellent Schools and Educators for Excellence could today be added to the list of those who influence education but have no experience as educators.

Of that Huffington Post list,  Arnie Duncan, Bill Gates, David Coleman, Michael Bloomberg, Wendy Kopp, and Mark Zuckerberg remain influential in K-12 education today.  The embattled Arnie Duncan still insists that test and punish is the way to close the achievement gap and setting up competition (races) among public schools is the way to improve education for all kids. David Coleman, as the chief writer and designer of the Common Core English Standards, leaves behind the legacy in all U.S. schools that implement the Common Core of less literature being read,  student engagement being eliminated as a goal, and writing taught as  formulas without personal involvement of the student writers. And he now he is president of the College Board so we can only guess at that damage. Bill Gates is funding every possible avenue for discussing Common Core, including the League of Women Voters, and every possible avenue for implementing the Common Core, including teachers unions and Educators for Excellence. Michael Bloomberg, although no longer mayor of New York City, still exerts great influence on the governor of New York and uses his vast wealth and powerful connections to support the cause for charter schools. Wendy Kopp, founder and now Chair of the Board of Teach for America, continues to insist that 5 weeks training in the summer is enough education and an internship under an accomplished  mentor is not necessary to produce a qualified teacher.

Mark Zuckerberg may be an outlier. After donating 100 million dollars to the Newark schools and realizing that endeavor failed because educators and parents were left out of the process, he and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan who has been a teacher, have now donated 120 million to San Francisco and Bay Area schools with the stipulation that all efforts must focus on teacher and parent involvement. He has learned that it is teachers who know about teaching and learning, and it is parents and teachers, not investors or politicians, who care about the children. We will have to watch this endeavor.

Here is what The Huffington Post had to say about the non-educators who have been and still are in charge of much of what has been called “reform” but actually should be called malpractice as suggested in another Huffington Post article:

They design teacher evaluation systems, teacher training guidelines and the types of standards that need to be taught. Yet, they have never been teachers themselves.

These days, being a teacher is clearly not a prerequisite for becoming a leader in education. In fact, some of the leaders with the most daily influence on classrooms come from entirely unrelated fields.

Below we have compiled a list of some of the most influential leaders in education who have never been teachers.

• Arne Duncan
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  While our nation’s foremost leader in education policy has extensive experience in education administration, he was never actually a teacher. In the early ’90s, Duncan headed the Ariel Education Initiative, a program that helped fund college for inner-city kids in Chicago. He became the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system in 2001, before assuming his post as U.S. Secretary of Education.

  Education was an important part of Duncan’s early life. His mother runs an after-school tutoring center, while his late father taught at the University of Chicago.

• Bill Gates
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  Microsoft mogul Bill Gates has risen as an education influential in recent years through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation’s education initiatives have pumped billions of dollars into advocacy groups and research organizations that support pro-education reform causes like charter schools and teacher evaluation systems.

  In addition, Gates himself has reportedly taken a strong personal interest in improving student outcomes across the country. His foundation is also helping to fund the implementation and promotion of the groundbreaking Common Core State Standards, a set of national education benchmarks that have been adopted in most states.

  However, some teachers resent his unduly influence in the field. Several months ago, a website called “Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates” emerged. The site publishes letters from educators who feel the philanthropist has impacted their classrooms in negative ways.

  “We are teachers with questions. We are teachers who no longer want to live behind the Gates. We are teachers who are not funded by the Gates Foundation,” the website’s “About” section reads.

• David Coleman
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  David Coleman, a figure The Huffington Post has dubbed “the most influential education figure you’ve never heard of,” is the president of the College Board, a national educational organization that is currently redesigning the SAT. Prior to his post at College Board, he was “the chief architect” of the Common Core  English Language Arts Standards.

  While nearly every teacher and student in the U.S. will be impacted by Coleman’s ideas, the education influential was never a teacher. During his early years, he was exposed to the world of education through his mother, who was a university president.

• Michael Bloomberg
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  Changing education in New York City was a centerpiece of Michael Bloomberg’s agenda during his three terms as mayor. A 2002 law, which was renewed in 2009,granted the mayor direct control over the city’s public schools. During the rest of his time in office, Bloomberg worked to expand charter schools in the city, make teachers more accountable through evaluations tied to student test scores and close what he deemed to be failing schools.

  However, it does not seem his legacy will end as he vacates his mayoral post. As HuffPost’s Joy Resmovits wrote, “his legacy in remaking the city’s schools was at the center of local and state elections nationwide, sometimes explicitly” this November.

  Successful businessman? Yes. Teacher? No.

  Mark Zuckerberg
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  Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, made a big splash in the education world in 2010 when he agreed to donate $100 million to public schools in Newark, N.J. In 2013, Zuckerberg and other technology influentials launched a political group that pushes for issues including school accountability and STEM education.

  The Silicon Valley boy king was never a teacher.

  Wendy Kopp
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  Wendy Kopp is the founder and chair of the Board of Teach For America, an organization that puts thousands of recent college graduates and professionals in classrooms with disadvantaged youth. Yet, she was never actually a teacher herself.

  Kopp had the idea for Teach For America as an undergraduate at Princeton University. Its model recently went global with an organization she founded called Teach for All.