Low-Income Families "Dumbfounded" When Told Zuckerberg Is Shutting Down Their School

Yahoo

26-04-2025

Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg's pediatrician-turned-philanthropist wife, is shutting down the free private school their charitable organization funds — and the families implicated were blindsided by the news.
As the New York Times reports, parents at The Primary School, which Chan cofounded alongside educator Meredith Liu in 2016, weren't given any reason why the two-campus institution will shut its doors at the end of the 2025-2026 school year.
Founded to address the systemic racism inherent in education, the school's two campuses in the towns of San Leandro and East Palo Alto serve roughly 550 students and their families.
Its approach was unique even for the Bay Area: the school not only gives free tuition to kids from the neighborhood, most of whom are Latino, but also provides them and their families with free medical and mental health services.
Built to "support the wellness and growth of parents alongside the wellness and growth of their children," as The Primary School boasts on its website, the services it offered to its low-income families — some of whom are undocumented, or are of mixed documentation status — are life-changing.
The abrupt announcement that the school will soon be shuttering — especially after Zuckerberg and Chan's charity promised that it would maintain its social justice roots in the wake of Meta terminating its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs — came as a shock.
"Overnight, [Chan] gave us a complete reversal that none of us could have imagined," one mother, who asked the NYT not to reveal her name due to immigration concerns, said. "That's all we ask with our heart — that she support us and not leave us halfway with our children."
That same mother told the newspaper that teachers at The Primary School not only helped her six-year-old autistic son with education accommodations, but also ensured that his classmates didn't bully him. Though she didn't explicitly verbalize her concerns, it's not hard to imagine that she may now be concerned about where her son will attend school next in an area flush with uber-expensive private schools.
Just before news of the imminent closure went public, the families were, as Primary School parent Emeline Vainikolo told the NYT, invited to a breakfast meeting with administrators. Over bagels, fruit, and Starbucks, they were left "dumbfounded" after being told the school would be shuttering at the end of the next school year.
According to Vainikolo, whose kindergartener son attends the school alongside several of his close family members, students and teachers alike are trying to make sense of the bait-and-switch.
"'Mommy, the guy who's been giving money to our school doesn't want to give it to us anymore,'" the mother relayed from her son, who was apparently parroting his teacher.
When the asked whether Zuckerberg's newfound antiwokeness had anything to do with his charity pulling the school's funding, Carson Cook, the school's senior strategy and advancement manager, didn't have much to say.
"No comment," he told the NYT.
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