On Sunday's This Week with George Stephanopolous on ABC, billionaire Bill Gates defended Common Core education and insisted that it is not a takeover by the federal government.

Gates, who is also funding a giant database of private information on school children, blamed "various groups" for causing confusion over the true intent of his favored education system:

I'm thrilled this is moving forward and disappointed that through confusion and various groups, its implementation is actually at risk in some states.

Stephanopolous argued that various teachers' groups, parents and the Tea Party all oppose Common Core and said that many states are looking to delay and even scrap the program all together. Gates admitted that some of their concerns are legitimate but believes implementing the program should move forward.

Here is their conversation:

Stephanopolous: You've got a conservative element who say this is federal control over education. How do you respond to that?

Gates: Well, the Common Core is not a curriculum. It doesn't tell you how to teach. It's not a federal takeover. Nobody's pushing for that.

Stephanopolous: Tea Party's convinced it is.

Gates: Well, but then we need to get the facts out. I mean, if they want the Congress to pass a bill saying they'll never tell us what to do, that's fine.

Stephanopolous: But you've got the head of the NEA [National Education Association] saying the rollout has been completely botched. The head of the AFT [American Federation of Teachers] Randi Weingarten said the rollout of HealthCare.gov is nothing compared to the rollout of Common Core. And these are your supporters who say that this is just not working the way it is supposed to work.

Gates: Well, the rollout is state by state -- this is local stuff. And in some locations, they have a legitimate point. That's a very different question than saying we shouldn't move towards the Common Core.

Stephanopolous asked Gates to offer his prediction for American students after learning under Common Core education. Gates said:

I believe in 10 years from now, kids' confidence in math, kids' scores in math can be improved a lot.