Mark Zuckerberg's money lays path for change in Newark schools

The classroom is equipped with a smartboard and a fancy projector, but those weren't bought with the $100 million donated to the city's public schools in 2010 by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

“In some ways it’s less tangible," explains Newark Public Schools Superintendent Cari Anderson, "but in many ways, it’s a lot more systemic and a lot longer lasting.” Anderson says Zuckerberg’s money isn’t buying things, it’s changing how things are done.

“Most significant from our standpoint," she says, "has been the support that he and other philanthropists gave to achieve a breakthrough labor contract with the Newark Teacher’s Union.”

Yes, a labor contract. Some $50 million helped broker an agreement with the union to accept a new teacher evaluation system and pay based on performance.

Kim McLain, who heads the Foundation for Newark’s Future -- the group in charge of doling out Zuckerberg’s money -- says this wasn't dictated by Zuckerberg, but it fits with the vision behind the donation.


“One of the things that we firmly believe in is that in order to have a really good educational system, it starts with the teacher in the classroom,” she says.

Zuckerberg’s gift has also been used to help open several new schools, including charter schools, and to create a centralized system for tracking student progress.


“It’s an agenda about which I have serious doubts,” says Paul Tractenberg, founder of the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers. He disagrees with the new approach, arguing that it will “weaken collective bargaining, weaken job security of teachers, [and] hold teachers accountable based largely on standardized test scores of their students.”

School Options

Click here to see how the Foundation for Newark's Future has divied up Zuckerberg's $100 million donation so far.


Program Grant Eligibility

Be a non-profit with a record of serving young people (ages 0-24) from low-income families
Have the ability and interest to serve youth on a Newark-wide basis
Demonstrate a commitment to using data to drive and improve upon program delivery and quantify impact
Have an evidence base of achieving outcomes for youth in one of the following five areas:

• Early Childhood Education
• At Risk Youth
• Community Engagement
• School Innovations
• Teacher Quality and Principal Leadership