100 Million Dollars
2 min read
So I'm glad that Mark Zuckerberg is giving 100 million dollars to the city of Newark, and that this initial investment is designed to attract an additional 100 million to the city.
It's a lot of money, and he didn't have to do it. It's always good to see people stepping up and getting involved.
But I'm skeptical. If this money is used to dismantle the public school system in Newark, then the 100 million will have been used to do the people of Newark, and New Jersey, a disservice. If the money is used to fund a series of unsustainable changes in the hopes that additional funding streams will materialize over time, then the money will have been wasted.
There are a slew of things for which this money can be used. But, when the dust settles, when the focus of the media leaves Newark, if this turns out to be nothing more than a well-funded publicity gimmick, then the people of Newark will have been misused in the larger national debate about what educational change should look like. And that's a waste of 100 million dollars, and an abuse of people's hopes.
Picture credit: Image retrieved from the Newseum, of the NJ Star Ledger front page for 23 September, 2010
