By Abby Jackson
In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to Newark, New Jersey’s failing public-school system with the intention of turning around the schools in five years.
The goals Zuckerberg set out to achieve — to enact a number of reforms that would make Newark a model city for education reform — are widely seen as a failure, journalist Dale Russakoff told Business Insider.
So where exactly did that $100 million go if the turnaround was a failure?
Russakoff mapped the money trail in her new book “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools,” which tracked the five years since Zuckerberg’s donation.
The $100 million from Zuckerberg actually became $200 million under the agreement other sources would match his contribution. Here’s where that money went:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerbergs-100-million-donation-155608055.html
Although I’m sure he’s not happy with the outcome, he did okay with the project. He got a massive tax write-off for the donation, and best of all, he got massive publicity and praise for it at the time. I’m not knocking the guy, as I believe he did this with all the right intentions.
The absence of any demonstrable difference in student performance or achievement before and after the infusion of $100 million into the Newark district is cymbal-crashing proof that the New Jersey Legislature can safely stop funding it and other similar urban districts at such astronomically elevated levels and expect no adverse effect. After equalizing state-based funding on a student-by-student basis, the legislature can begin to formulate real reforms that have a legitimate chance for success for the students in urban districts. SPENDING PROPORTIONALLY MORE MONEY ON K-12 EDUCATION OF URBAN STUDENTS BEARS NO RELATION TO MORE SUCCESS ON THEIR PART–IT NEVER HAS!!!
Another waste of money are the “abbot districts” in nj.
For those of you unfamiliar, due to a ruling by the left wing no state Supreme Court (abbot vs Burke) e state must shovel money to the shit holes of Camden Newark Paterson Garfield etc so that the same dollar amount per pupil is spent in every district . Take Paterson for example where students advance to the next grade simply by attending, not taking tests.
Whereas mark wasted his own money, the state spends YOuRS so there is no money to do anything else
Complete waste of money, and every educator in the state knew it. Get rid of the administrators, the parents, and even a lot of the kids who cause a ton of the problems in the classes, and you might have a prayer. The same goes for Paterson and Camden. The reality is it is way too big a mountain to climb.
maybe they can hire teachers from Ridgewood unhappy with their deal here?