Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The foundation managing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation for education in Newark will finance a new project that helps poor students.
The Foundation for Newark's Future will invest $1.2 million now and up to $12.5 million total on two initiatives unveiled Tuesday in Newark. They will include additional support to students living in poverty, including programs in school and the community.
The money to launch the South Ward Community Schools Initiative and Newark Opportunity Youth Network marks one of the final donations the foundation will make, five years after Zuckerberg committed the money.
Zuckerberg said last month that he learned in Newark that it's important to understand the desires of a community when working in education and is using lessons learned in Newark in his next effort in California.
The initiatives announced Tuesday will include bringing community groups and institutions together to help students both in the classroom and in after-school programs.
Newark schools Superintendent Christopher Cerf said the schools will have more control over their own budgets, staffing and curriculum. The South Ward Community Schools Initiative will start as a pilot program next school year.
The Newark Opportunity Youth Network will provide educational and support services, including job training.
Zuckerberg appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show in September 2010 with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker to announce the $100 million donation to remake education in Newark. The goal was to make a struggling city a national model for turning around urban schools.
Advocates see success in the most visible result so far — many more students in charter schools. But the exodus of students and the public funding that goes with them from Newark Public Schools has deepened a financial crisis in a school district that still educates most of the children in the city.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
