Mark Zuckerberg's gift of $100 million to the Newark public schools raises the same questions we discussed when Eli Broad and his partners used their money to make sure Michelle Rhee could get buy-in from the teachers unions for her merit pay ideas.
I suspect that Zuckerberg's gift will be put to great use because he has said that he trusts Cory Booker to manage things. And Cory Booker is certainly a man who can manage things.
But I worry about the precedent and wonder whether private donors are going to be able to get the public schools to teach what they want them to if they give them enough money, for instance. Though for all I know, they already do.
Maybe liberal foundations offer grants to schools that teach environmentalism. Please send examples if you have them. Inquiring minds want to know.
2 thoughts on “Does Zuckerberg’s gift raise a bad precedent?”
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I am aware of anecdotes in higher ed of the opposite occurring: a school turning down a gift from a donor that came with too many political strings. However, a private college with a robust fundraising department probably feels more secure turning down a gift than K-12 public schools. But generally, I’d say school leaders accept gifts with restrictions when they align with what they wanted to do anyway.