Mark Zuckerberg is feeling the education-reform urge again. The Facebook (FB) chief executive officer announced a $120 million contribution on Friday to improve Bay Area schools. “The world’s most innovative community shouldn’t also home for struggling schools,” Zuckerberg and his partner, Priscilla Chan, wrote in the San Jose Mercury News.
The first $5 million will go to the the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto/Belle Haven, the Redwood City School District, and several other “high need communities” in San Francisco to pay for new computers, Internet connectivity, teacher training, “and parent outreach to make these a really valuable addition to the learning experience.”
The most interesting part of their op-ed, however, was what the couple had to say about Zuckerberg’s earlier $100 million gift to the public schools in Newark, N.J. That intervention in a struggling school system hasn’t gone well. Still, the Facebook founder tried to put the best possible spin on it:
“In Newark, a lot of the work we started is still underway, but we’ve already seen some good results. Newark now has the leading teacher contract in the country that was developed with teachers to reward good performance. New district and charter schools run by organizations with a track record of success have started, as well as 50 new principals. Across the district, the graduation rate has grown by 10%. It’s still too early to see the full results in Newark, but we’re making progress and have learned a lot about what makes a successful effort.”
The op-ed neglected to mention the reform effort that Zuckerberg has spearheaded—with help from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker, now a U.S. senator—has become mired in politics. Cami Anderson, the schools superintendent they recruited from New York to fix the ailing school district, has struggled to build support for her reform efforts in the city, which including closing failing schools and laying off substandard teachers.
Ras Baraka, the most vocal antagonist of the new superintendent, won the mayoral election last month and vowed to get rid of her. It’s not clear how. The state of New jersey controls the district. But Baraka and his allies in the city’s teachers union can make her job even more difficult.
Zuckerberg has learned something from his Newark experience: how to set limited expectations. In Newark four years ago, he talked about turning Newark’s schools around—a Herculean task if ever there was one. He and Chen have set a much lower bar in the Bay Area, starting out with a small investment with more a more discreet goal. “Today’s announcement is just a small step towards the change we need to achieve in our community and our country,” they wrote, “but it’s another step in a journey we expect to spend the rest of our lives on.”
