Gates Should Fund Education, Public Health Programs in Washington, D.C., Opinion Piece Says

If Bill Gates and Warren Buffett "want to give away billions of dollars" through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they should "use some of it to build a better America -- starting with the capital of the free world," columnist Courtland Milloy writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. The Gates foundation, which already helps to fund several Washington, D.C., public schools, should "help them all" and "[m]ake 'leave no child behind' more than a slogan," Milloy writes. In addition, Washington, D.C., is "not unlike a third world country" when it comes to health, Milloy writes, highlighting the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the District. "The inability of the city to slow the spread of HIV is symptomatic" of the city's "failures to address" public health problems, according to Milloy. "Can we really celebrate an ideal" of the "fabled 'shining city on the hill'" when we "cannot envision" it in the nation's capitol, Milloy writes, concluding, "We can do better, and we need all the help we can get" (Milloy, Washington Post, 7/5).