Hollywood joins the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to kick off "Get Schooled", an initiative aimed at supporting and improving education in the United States.
Bill Gates and a host of corporate leaders joined forces with Hollywood celebrities to help launch "Get Schooled", an initiative aimed at improving education in America.
The national program was unveiled Tuesday (September 08, 2009) during an education conference held at the Paramount Pictures lot.
"Get Schooled" is an plan bo Read more

Hollywood joins the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to kick off "Get Schooled", an initiative aimed at supporting and improving education in the United States.
Bill Gates and a host of corporate leaders joined forces with Hollywood celebrities to help launch "Get Schooled", an initiative aimed at improving education in America.
The national program was unveiled Tuesday (September 08, 2009) during an education conference held at the Paramount Pictures lot.
"Get Schooled" is an plan born out of the partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the entertainment giant Viacom. The groundbreaking initiative looks to reform education in the United States by finding ways to increase high school and college graduation rates, while promoting the fundamental importance of education as a a way to secure the future of America.
Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, was among the speakers at the conference.
"They might say this is a tough time to be looking at this, because, how do we invest when we are having a tough economy and budget cutbacks?" said Gates. "But I'd say, figuring out how to do schools effectively, how to keep the best teachers, how to improve the average quality of the teachers, how to use new technology is even more important at this time."
Viacom's CEO Philippe Dauman was among the group of powerful business executives who joined Gates to explain the initiative.
"A five year program that Viacom's doing with the Gates Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to tell kids to get schooled, and really change education in America. So we have educators like Joel Klein and entertainers, actors, directors, and we are going to get that message across if it kills us," said Dauman.
The Wall Street giants were joined by some of Hollywood's brightest stars for the event, including Heidi Klum and Seal, Ben Stiller, Morgan Freeman and Salma Hayek.
"Well, I think Bill Gates has certainly proved himself to be a person who thinks outside the box, that can see things that other people can't see, to see things in a way that other people can't see," said actress Cheryl Hines. "So, I think that it is huge that he is spearheading this movement, I think it is huge."
The conference was hosted by comedian Stephen Colbert. Close