Back in 2000, the Gates Foundation looked at a series of reading programs that are the best in the nation, one of which is considered the Cadillac of reading programs among the homeschooling world. They passed on them all, which meant they were not interested in funding any effort to make them better known. Instead, they became interested in furthering the goals of Common Core.
The people who they have working at the Gates foundation all came from the Clinton administration.