- The list of celebrities and billionaire founders who pour their wealth in the classroom is increasing: Kanye West, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Eileon Musk and Jeff Bezos sought to get rid of schools. Some even built their own. But it turns out that fixing a very defective system is more difficult than it appears.
If you can name the billionaire, there are possibilities, they have given some of their charitable hideouts to the world of education.
Perhaps the most prominent of which is the efforts of the French Bill Gates and Melinda, who have Billion dollars donate to reshape thousands of classrooms With improved algebra and professional development. Michael Bloomberg also donated billions through efforts such as Make the Faculty of Medicine for free for most students At Johns Hopkins University.
Frederick Hess, director of educational policy studies at the Institute of American Institutions, a policy research tank, says that looking at education is a gateway to success and opportunity, so it is no wonder that the super -wealthy people find it attractive to their charitable work.
However, instead of trying Help resolve the current issues with the education systemThe other billionaires took a different way with their money: starting their private schools from A to Z.
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk Both are funded by the Revolution School of the New School in Montessori, which focuses on things such as self -expression and global discovery. The colleagues of The Ultra Rich like Mark Zuckerberg, We got Adam NewmanAnd you (Previously known as Kanye WestIt also helped find new schools. However, some attempts have become more popular with their failure instead of their impact.
The educational charitable work can be a hole of money
According to Laban Warstin, co -founder and CEO of Blackboard advisersIt is a consulting company for education, charitable educational work is a defective monster – with no perfect solution.
“Education is a system consisting of dedicated and emotional people and worked hard, collectively and in a total, they do not achieve the results they hope to achieve.” luck.
In 2014, Zuckerberg and his wife helped open an institute called the Elementary School to help reduce the financial pressures of obtaining high -quality early education. In total, two free schools were opened from the tuition fees that serve primary and middle school students with low incomes in California. However, last month, they are They suddenly announced that they would close At the end of the school year. Although the reasons for the closure are not quite clear, financial affairs seem part of the problem.
Brock Coca, one of the parents and member of the school’s board of directors, said, said Brock Coca, one of the parents and member of the school’s board of directors, San Francisco Cronic The school was struggling financially and was struggling to find donors behind Zuckerberg’s first investment. The school one day hopes to continue in general financing.
After receiving a comment for the comment, the primary school and the Chan Zuckerberg initiative indicated luck To the Institute’s website.
“This was a very difficult decision, and we are committed to ensuring a deliberate and supportive transfer to students and families during the next year,” the primary school said in one of the publications. statement.
Zuckerberg, who The net value is now estimated at $ 223 billionIt has a long history with charitable educational work.
In 2010, it is gold Winfrey Opera offer To announce that he donates $ 100 million to reform public schools in Newark, New Jersey, where other philanthropists are identical to his donation of a total amount of $ 200 million.
However, after years, experts are still divided into the long -term effects of his gift. One study I found that the students have seen great progress in the English language, but there are no changes in mathematics, and the former Nark mayor The donation is called “umbrella” The solution that failed to deal appropriately with members of the local community.
Attempting, education, was also ambitious, but it was short -lived. The rapper opened the Dunda Academy, a private Christian school for pre -kindergarten students until the twelfth grade students, in the fall of 2022. But after only months, the school closed its doors after anger at a series of his participation on social media that was detonated for being anti -Semitic.
A year later, the lawsuits of former teachers claimed that the school had not consistently paid its employees and enjoyed serious health and safety issues. For example, One claim Was that because you were not “glass”, as students left “two elements” due to the building’s empty windows tires. They settled one of the lawsuits earlier this year, according to the people.
“Charitable works like risk capital”
Whether it is a new school or a major donation of charity, Walristin says failure is not uncommon.
He says: “I think in some cases what some people might consider that failures actually reflect a degree of circumstantial awareness and self -awareness, about, Wow, this problem is much more difficult than we thought.”
And Warrestin added: “Charity is like risk capital.
Despite the flaws of the education system, the change is not always welcomed, and attempts to innovate strangers often have unintended consequences.
In early 2010, like business leaders such as companies such as Exxon MobilAnd Ge and Intel Backed Common basic educational standardsBut soon they found themselves on the wrong side of the rebellion against federal control in the semester.
“It is truly easy for donors with goodwill to conclude the politicization of things by mistake or make reasonable ideas seem to be pushed by dark strangers,” he said.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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