Dive Brief:
- The Foundation for Newark's Future will provide $1.2 million in seed money with a potential $11.3 million more to come for two new anti-poverty and educational initiatives — the South Ward Community Schools Initiative and Newark Opportunity Youth Network — in one of New Jersey’s poorest cities.
- The funding will come from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's 2010 donation of $100 million dollars toward Newark school reform, which has most notably lead to greater student enrollment in charter schools.
- According to the Associated Press, that "exodus of students and the public funding that goes with them” served to deepen the district's financial troubles.
Dive Insight:
Newark isn’t the only place in the country benefiting from Zuckerberg’s largesse and passion for education. Along with his wife, Priscilla Chan, the Facebook founder has given millions to various education reform and ed tech initiatives. Among them: Palo Alto’s new holistic, “whole-child” approach to education in the form of The Primary School and Summit Public Schools, and ed tech solutions like MasteryConnect, which received a reported $5 million from the couple.
Zuckerberg’s Newark donation, however, has bred a fair amount of controversy. A pay-scale for teachers based on merit caused much debate, with unions speaking out against the idea. One scholar even publicly challenged the Facebook founder’s motives, saying that Zuckerberg essentially failed Newark by not demanding “clear” outcomes.
A recently published book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools,” took a closer look at what happened in Newark, finding that much of the money went to initiatives outside the classroom, including $31 million for unions and $20 million for district consultants.
But the latest Newark initiatives were conceived with consideration of those initial issues, the Associated Press reports, noting that the programs "will include bringing community groups and institutions together to help students both in the classroom and in after-school programs."
