To be fair, the Gates Foundation basically singlehandedly bankrolled the political process to push through Common Core...so a private individual buying control of our public k-12 schools. There are differences here, but both are dangerous.
- States already had educational standards
- There was already tremendous interest in improving those standards
- English, science, and math work the same way in every state
- States already had a lot of experience with harmonizing standards, such as the Uniform Commercial Codes
Even today, with all the "controversy", the vast majority of states adhere to the Common Core, and even the states that don't, have essentially the same standards with a different name.
So, there's really no reason to call this the Gates Foundation "buying control" of public schools.
edit: clarity