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Gates Foundation supersized

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which already enjoys a $24 billion endowment, just got a raise:

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said Monday his decision to leave most of his wealth to charity now was "logical," adding that he feels "terrific" about the reversal of his long-stated plan to distribute his billions upon his death.

Buffett, the second richest man in the world, announced his plans to gradually give 85 percent of his wealth to five foundations in an exclusive interview with Fortune magazine published over the weekend.

The vast majority will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, run by Microsoft chairman – and the world’s richest man – Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda. The foundation, which has about $30 billion in assets, focuses on world health as well as improving U.S. libraries and schools. Buffett’s contribution will double the foundation’s current assets.

"I feel terrific," Buffett said at a meeting Monday at the New York Public Library and monitored by Webcast. "This has been coming for 50 years; the exact method became clear in the last year."

The plan calls for Buffett to donate 10 million Berkshire Hathaway class B shares of stock to the Gates’ foundation, another 1 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett foundation, named for his late wife, and another 350,000 shares each to the three foundations run by Buffett’s three children, Susan, Howard and Peter.

Though the Foundation has supported laudable structural reforms, and Bill Gates has pronounced public high schools a failure, the Foundation has not yet taken the bold and necessary step of supporting school choice.  Perhaps the infusion of resources will make it more willing to consider different approaches that could enhance its prospects for delivering high-quality opportunities for all schoolchildren.