San Francisco, CA – Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $120 million to Bay Area schools to help underserved communities in San Francisco, the two wrote in an essay to the San Jose Mercury News.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The announcement, made in the Bay Area paper on Thursday night, marks Zuckerberg’s latest charitable donation to lagging public education systems. In 2010, the tech tycoon donated $100 million to beleaguered public schools in Newark, New Jersey.
“The investments we’ve made are a drop in the bucket compared to the challenges schools face. But we’ve seen that targeted investments can be catalysts for much bigger changes in communities, and give vital support to leaders and organizations,” the couple said.
“Helping improve the quality of public education in this country is something we both really care about.”
The essay cited the Ravenswood school district in particular, which is slated to receive grant money when the first $5 million is released, where last year fewer than half of the students were rate as proficient in math and fewer than 40 percent were proficient in English.
The two noted that low-income and minority students in the region struggle to perform well in the classroom, due in part to a lack of school resources.
The money will be routed through the Startup:Education fund with the aim of providing computers and internet connectivity to needy schools, offering teacher training, and helping to fund new district and charter schools among other initiatives.
Critics however have questioned the effectiveness of Zuckerberg’s past philanthropic endeavors. A recent article in The New Yorker outlined problems that continue to plague the Newark school system despite the $100 million donation.
“Everybody’s getting paid, but Raheem still can’t read,” Vivian Cox Fraser, president of the Urban League of Essex County, told The New Yorker.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Just shows that one can be smart and stupid at the same time. He wasted $100 million on the Newark public schools and clearly hasn’t learned from this experience. Too bad he isn’t interested in his Jewish roots; that much money could do wonders for frum families struggling with tuition.
Let’s try to make this really simple for those who always say in response to such news items “let him give to yeshivos”: Mr Zuckerberg is motivated by the desire to improve the lots of children that don’t have many resources, and to help prepare them for a successful life – he may succeed he may fail or something in between. But I assure you he has no interest in supporting a ysshiva system that does next to nothing to prepare its students for real life, let alone to make positive contributions to society as a whole.
#3 – very well said. Yeshivas must get support from their alumni and (those like minded)….but if their alumni can’t even support themselves………guess what happens….the entire system crashes.