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Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg started their own schools—but fixing the education system is harder than it looks
The list of billionaire celebrities and founders pouring fortunes into classrooms is growing: Kanye West, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have all sought to shake up schools. Some have even built their own. But it turns out, fixing a deeply flawed system is harder than it looks. If you can name a billionaire, odds are, they've given some of their philanthropic stash to the world of education. Perhaps the most notable are the efforts of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, who have donated billions of dollars to reshape thousands of classrooms with enhanced algebra and professional development. Michael Bloomberg, too, has donated billions through efforts like making medical school free for most students at Johns Hopkins University. Considering education is a gateway to success and opportunity, it's no wonder that the ultra rich find it attractive for their philanthropy, says Fredrick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy think tank. However, instead of trying to help fix existing issues with the education system, other billionaires have taken a different avenue with their money: starting their own schools from the ground up. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are both funding new Montessori-inspired preschools that focus on things like self-expression and global discovery. Fellow members of the ultra rich like Mark Zuckerberg, WeWork's Adam Neumann, and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) have also helped found new schools. But some attempts are becoming more known for the failure of their investments rather than their impact. According to Ben Wallerstein, co-founder and CEO of Whiteboard Advisors, an education consulting firm, education philanthropy is a flawed beast—with no perfect solution. 'Education is a system that's made up of people who are dedicated, passionate, hard working, who collectively and in aggregate, don't achieve the results that they would hope to achieve,' Wallerstein tells Fortune. In 2014, Zuckerberg and his wife helped open an institute called The Primary School to help alleviate the financial pressures of getting a high-quality early education. In total, two tuition-free schools serving low-income elementary and middle school students were opened in California. However, last month, they abruptly announced they would close at the end of the school year. While the reasons for the closure aren't entirely clear, finances appear to be part of the problem. Brooke Koka, a parent and board member of the school, told the San Francisco Chronicle the school had been struggling financially and had struggled to find donors beyond the initial Zuckerberg investment. The school hoped to one day be sustained on public funding. After receiving a request for comment, The Primary School and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative pointed Fortune to the institute's website. 'This was a very difficult decision, and we are committed to ensuring a thoughtful and supportive transition for students and families over the next year,' The Primary School said in a posted statement. Zuckerberg, whose net worth is now estimated at $223 billion, has a long history with education philanthropy. In 2010, he went on The Oprah Winfrey Show to announce he was donating $100 million to reform public schools in Newark, New Jersey, with other philanthropists matching his donation for a total of $200 million. However, years later, experts are still divided on the long-term impacts of his gift. One study found that students had seen significant progress in English but no changes in math, and a former Newark mayor called the donation a 'parachute' solution that failed to appropriately engage with local community members. Ye's attempt at education was also ambitious, but short lived. The rapper opened Donda Academy, a private Christian school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students, in the fall of 2022. But just months later, the school shut its doors following outrage over a series of his posts on social media that were blasted for being antisemitic. A year later, lawsuits from former teachers alleged that the school inconsistently paid its employees and had serious health and safety issues. For example, one allegation was that because Ye did not 'like glass,' students were left 'exposed to the elements' due to the building's empty window frames. Ye settled one of the lawsuits earlier this year, according to People. Whether it be a new school or major philanthropic donation, Wallerstein says failure is not uncommon. 'I think in some cases what some folks might view as failures actually reflect a degree of situational awareness and self awareness, about, wow, this problem is a lot harder than we thought,' he says. 'Philanthropy is like risk capital. You build things, you test things, you scale things, you see what works, you kill bad ideas,' Wallerstein added. Despite the education system's flaws, change is not always welcome, and outsiders' attempts at innovation can often have unintended consequences. In the early 2010s, business leaders from companies like Exxon Mobil, GE, and Intel backed Common Core educational standards, but quickly found themselves on the wrong side of a rebellion against federal oversight into the classroom. 'It's really easy for well-meaning donors to wind up accidentally politicizing things or making sensible ideas seem like they're being pushed by shadowy outsiders,' Hess says. This story was originally featured on
San Francisco Chronicle
29-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Mark Zuckerberg is worth billions. Why is his nonprofit school closing due to lack of funding?
Two of the richest people in the world made a slew of promises to low-income families when they opened a nonprofit school in East Palo Alto in 2016. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife Priscilla Chan vowed that The Primary School would give their children a free education, with a long list of extras on top to overcome the odds the families faced. No one thought the promises had an expiration date. Last week, hundreds of families learned The Primary School would close at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year. Then they were told why: There wasn't enough money to keep it open. Zuckerberg and Chan, worth an estimated $200 billion combined, were walking away. The news shook the families of the 443 students attending The Primary School in East Palo Alto, who tried to make sense of it. A week later, they were still waiting for a solid explanation. The story line that money ran out didn't sound right to many parents and observers, and alternatives quickly emerged, such as that the couple had shifted priorities away from projects focused on real people to focus almost exclusively on artificial intelligence, while also eliminating all association with diversity, equity and inclusion. "They said there isn't enough money to keep the school open, but I don't believe it," said Spanish-speaking parent Estrella Perez. "When the school opened, they were here, but now that the school is closing, they don't want to show up.' School officials did not respond to the Chronicle's requests to provide additional information, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative did not respond to requests for comment. The Primary School board chair Jean-Claude Brizard sent a brief text message: 'I don't think there's anything else to be said." Preschool parent Brooke Koka, who is also a Primary School board member, said the near unanimous decision to close the school happened at a recent board meeting following a presentation on the school's financial challenges. The school had been struggling financially for a couple of years, with conversations about cuts or reducing staffing, she said. The annual cost of the school, which includes a smaller preschool site in San Leandro with just over 100 children, was $12.4 million in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the most recent numbers available from federal filings. That's about $28,000 per student, which is just over the $25,000 budgeted per student in San Francisco Unified, with all local, state and federal funding included. Financial contributions to the school, which is operated as a nonprofit, dropped significantly from 2022 to 2023, tax filings show. The Primary School brought in nearly $8 million in contributions in 2022. In 2023, the school brought in just over $3.7 million, tax filings show. The filings do not show the specific sources of the contributions. Students had access not only to academics, but also medical, dental and mental health care, to address trauma, asthma, developmental delays, homelessness or other barriers to learning. But one former administrator said those add-ons did not produce immediate academic gains as hoped, in part because of the pandemic. Koka said her understanding was that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the nonprofit set up by the couple to fund its philanthropic endeavors, had planned to fund the school only for a certain amount of time and that the expectation was always that the school would find other public or private funding to support it long term. But those partnerships never materialized, she said, perhaps due to a lack of fundraising or visibility. 'We've just been slowly heading towards this, and I guess trying to hang on for some super person to come in and just pick up all of that slack,' Koka said. 'And it just never got there.' Koka, whose daughter has autism, said the school offers a supportive model for students with disabilities. She said many parents will struggle to navigate special education services in the public school system with fewer resources. 'Now families are going to have to figure it out on their own again,' Koka said. Longtime education philanthropists and nonprofit leaders questioned the idea of a new school becoming financially viable and self-sufficient on donations or other support in less than a decade while building out the leadership, curriculum and structure from scratch. 'Great schools take time. Progress takes time,' said Phil Halperin, who has spent nearly three decades in education philanthropy as president of the Silver Giving Foundation. 'And it's our responsibility to be in there for the long haul.' Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, an education policy and advocacy nonprofit, echoed the idea that education is complicated, but that shouldn't deter billionaires from getting involved. 'We need all hands on deck to help kids,' he said. 'We need that support if it's done well and people stick with it. The last thing you want is philanthropy to say, 'it's too messy, it's too controversial and we'll just go elsewhere.'' Lempert said the decision to close the school lacked sufficient transparency and that families deserved a fuller explanation of what happened. 'Yes, education is hard,' he said. 'What's wrong and upsetting is when you're not there for the long term —– or you say here's the answer and suddenly shift gears.' Katherine Carter, a former administrator at The Primary School, said the school board — and many faculty members — were not satisfied with the academic outcomes. The school saw significant gains in the lowest test scores, she said, but students struggled to reach proficient or above-proficient levels. 'There was a mistaken belief that the wraparound programming … would show up in dramatic test scores,' she said. Carter said COVID-19 shutdowns and high principal turnover at The Primary School caused disruption in student learning. 'It takes a long time when you have an innovative school model,' Carter said. 'It takes three to five years of stable leadership. We were never able to get that.' Carter said The Primary School attempted to partner with Hayward Unified School District to expand the San Leandro preschool into an elementary school, but it was called off as the district closed two schools amid a budget shortfall and declining enrollment. It's unclear why the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative wouldn't continue to financially support the school or why it would expect a startup education initiative to be financially independent and academically successful while it's still growing. The East Palo Alto school, which grew by a grade each year, planned to serve up to 700 preschool through eighth grade students at full buildout, which was expected to be next year. This was not Zuckerberg's first foray into education reform. In 2010, he gave $100 million to the Newark, N.J., public schools to overhaul the system, closing low-performing schools and welcoming charters. Critics said the effort yielded mixed results and created turmoil. Zuckerberg later admitted he learned hard lessons from the experiment. His later efforts through the initiative included funding existing nonprofit education programs and research. But when Chan and Zuckerberg launched The Primary School they hoped it would be a success, with the long-term goal of opening three to five sites across the Bay Area with public schools replicating the model across the country, officials said early on. Chan, in an October 2016 video interview, , said the plan was to bring together health and education 'to work together to improve the lives of the kids.' 'That's our vision of what we can hopefully accomplish in the decades to come,' she said. Less than nine years later, Chan was in tears while on a conference call with school staff and parent leaders speaking about the closure. 'She was sad,' preschool parent Koka said. 'I know she had a lot of passion for this project.' Koka couldn't remember 'word for word' what Chan said. 'I just remember her apologizing to the families who were on the call, saying she was sorry,' Koka added. 'This is not what she expected to happen.' While the announcement has left families devastated, the decision reflects Zuckerberg and Chan's shift in recent years in their philanthropic focus. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has been moving away from funding social science research, school-based programs or hands-on work, much of it focused on diversity, race and equity issues. Grant recipients in the last few years have included the Black Teacher Collaborative, the Equity Initiative, Black Voices for Black Justice Fund and the Liber Institute, which supports Indigenous communities. The initiative's education team has started focusing more on technology, specifically artificial intelligence, to fuel classroom learning. In January, Zuckerberg — who has worked to develop closer ties with President Donald Trump — announced Meta, Facebook's parent company, would eliminate DEI. His and Chan's initiative followed suit in February. By March, there appeared to be only one DEI light left on in the Zuckerberg empire: The Primary School. The school had deep roots in diversity, equity and inclusion, vowing to teach about diverse cultures and anti-racism while helping students do social justice work and providing opportunities for families to discuss racism. The East Palo Alto school is primarily children of color with 61% of its students identifying as Latino, 7% as Black, 11% as multiracial, 7% as Pacific Islander, 1% as Asian American, and 13% not provided. In addition, a quarter of students qualify for special education services and another third receive other specialized support — meaning nearly 60% have significant needs. Parent Margarita Perez said she enrolled her daughter at the school when she was six months pregnant to ensure they both received support. Her daughter, who is now a first grader, has two teachers in her classroom with a parent coach available for extra support. Then there is dental care, mental health counseling, speech therapy and more. It's the kind of education and support that experts say is needed to bring some equity between the children in East Palo Alto, where the average median household income is $105,000 and its neighbor Palo Alto, where the average median income is $220,408. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said it will invest $50 million over five years in East Palo Alto, Belle Haven and the East Bay to help families navigate the transition through education savings accounts, early childhood programs and family engagement services. Families were told they would receive money to help them find another school: $10,000 for each K-8 student, $2,500 for each preschooler and $1,000 for each child under 3. Perez said that money is an attempt to placate parents. She doesn't believe that Zuckerberg and Chan don't have enough money to keep the school open. She wondered whether Zuckerberg's connection to the Trump administration influenced the decision to shutter the school. "I'm disappointed because they made promises,' she said. 'And now they're leaving.'
New York Post
28-04-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan to close free school for low-income Bay Area students a decade after it opened
A tuition-free school founded by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, for low-income communities of color in the Bay Area is abruptly shutting its doors — only a decade after it opened. The Primary School, founded in 2016 by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, sought to provide free schooling, health care and social work resources to families in the East Palo Alto area, just a few miles from Meta's headquarters. It decried the systemic effects of racism and poverty, and Chan, a pediatrician married to Zuckerberg, and her late educator friend Meredith Liu often discussed how low-income children were more likely to experience impactful trauma early in their lives. Advertisement 3 The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative opened The Primary School in 2016 in the East Palo Alto area. Google Maps But The Primary School, and its sister campus in the East Bay, sent shockwaves throughout the community last week when it announced it would close at the end of the 2025-26 school year. Though it did not provide a reason for the closure, it comes as Zuckerberg has executed a strong political about-face as he tries to curry favor with the Trump administration. Advertisement The Primary School and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment. Earlier this year, just weeks before Trump's inauguration, Zuckerberg killed Meta's DEI programs and scrapped the social media platform's fact-checking policies in favor of a 'Community Notes' model. Trump ally Elon Musk uses a similar note system on X, arguing that content moderation policies infringe on free speech. Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund through Meta, and, alongside Chan, sat upfront at his inauguration. Meta also agreed to pay a whopping $25 million to settle a lawsuit Trump brought against the company for suspending his account after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. About $22 million of that figure will help fund a Trump presidential library. Advertisement 3 Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos at President Trump's inauguration. Getty Images Emeline Vainikolo, a parent with children in the district, told The New York Times that she and other parents were invited by school administrators to a breakfast of bagels, fruit and Starbucks coffee when they dropped the news of the closure, but were given no reason. Her son, a kindergartner at The Primary School, later shared what he had gleaned from his teacher. ''Mommy, the guy who's been giving money to our school doesn't want to give it to us anymore,'' he told his mother, according to the Times. Advertisement Zuckerberg and Chan's nonprofit, CZI, plans to invest $50 million in the school's surrounding communities over the next few years, donating to education savings plans for all Primary School students, as well as support for families transitioning to new districts. In February, the initiative announced it would focus on science and 'wind down' its social advocacy work – including investments in immigration reform and racial equity grantmaking, as well as internal DEI programs. 3 Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg at the 2025 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony in Santa Monica, Calif. Getty Images Families at The Primary School, however, said CZI's sudden departure is just another slap in the face from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who have contributed to a housing shortage thanks to an influx of highly-paid tech workers. The Primary School 'was highly publicized as a gift to the community,' one parent told the San Francisco Standard. 'They were already taking our homes because of Facebook, landlords pricing us out. Now they're gonna take this away too. It seems unfair.'
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Low-Income Families "Dumbfounded" When Told Zuckerberg Is Shutting Down Their School
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. More on Zuckerberg: Zuckerberg Announces Layoffs After Saying Coding Jobs Will Be Replaced by AI
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Mark Zuckkerberg's wife Priscilla Chan-funded free Silicon Valley School to shut down next year
The Primary School , a no-cost private institution in the Bay Area co-founded by Priscilla Chan , wife of Facebook parent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg , will reportedly cease operations following the 2025-2026 academic year, concluding roughly ten years of service to 543 students. First reported by Bloomberg, the impending closure was disclosed in a statement posted on the school's website recently. In a move aimed at preserving its legacy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the billionaire couple's philanthropic arm, has committed $50 million to invest in the communities the school serves -— specifically East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, and the East Bay region near San Francisco -- over the subsequent few years. What the note on the school's website says "This was a very difficult decision, and we are committed to ensuring a thoughtful and supportive transition for students and families over the next year," the online statement conveyed. Carson Cook, a spokesperson for The Primary School, stated there would be no further comment beyond the official announcement. Pediatrician Priscilla Chan, 40, co-established The Primary School in 2016, implementing an "integrated health and education model" designed to support families and children from birth through high school, according to the organization's tax filings. The school's inaugural middle school cohort commenced in 2023. The most recent tax documentation indicates that over 95% of The Primary School's students in East Palo Alto identify as under-represented minorities. The filing also revealed the nonprofit held assets exceeding $30 million as of the end of June 2023. Mark Zuckerberg's Education Ventures The Primary School is among several educational endeavors recently initiated by prominent billionaires. Elon Musk , Jeff Bezos, and Larry Ellison have all established schools in recent years. Musk's nonprofit, the Musk Foundation, has contributed $237 million to his technology-focused primary and secondary school in Austin, named Ad Astra, with future aspirations for a university. Ad Astra collaborates with the same entity that assisted Ellison in establishing his Hala Kahiki Montessori school in Lanai, Hawaii, an island largely owned by the Oracle co-founder. founder Bezos has created a network of Montessori-inspired preschools catering to children in underserved communities. The closure of The Primary School coincides with significant strategic shifts within Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms Inc. as the 40-year-old founder appears to be aligning his business interests more closely with the Trump administration. Recent appointments to Meta's board include longtime Trump allies Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Dina Powell McCormick, who served as Trump's deputy national security adviser during his first term. Furthermore, Zuckerberg has appointed a Republican strategist as chief of global affairs, eliminated Meta's US fact-checking program, rolled back the company's hate-speech policies, and discontinued key diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at both Meta and CZI. This contrasts with The Primary School's documented commitment to diversity, which included conducting a diversity audit in June 2020 following the Black Lives Matter protests and forming a DEI task force in the fall of that year.
