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Facebook CEO and founder to donate $100 million to Newark schools

22 September 2010 584 views No Comment BY: BNO News

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY (BNO NEWS) – Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, is expected to announce a donation of $100 million to the Newark public schooling system in a bold move to improve one of the country's worst performing school systems, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Zuckerberg, 26, is the world's youngest billionaire, with a large share in the international phenomena and social networking site, Facebook. He created the site and it soon after became a worldwide pop culture icon. He is now creating a foundation with $100 million of Facebook stock to be used for improving education in America, with the primary goal of helping the Newark school systems.

The donation will possibly be matched by another $100 million from the Newark mayor, who has been working to raise donations for the public school system from private foundations and others. Newark spends around $22,000 a year on each pupil, but only half of its students graduate, an abysmal rate. Over 85 percent of students at Newark community colleges need remedial math and English help.

The $200 million would amount to just over 20 percent of Newark's budget of $940 million. The donation comes at a time when foundations and funders are putting large amounts of money into public education, but with conditions attached. For example, large amounts of money were poured into the D.C. school systems, with an increase in teacher pay based on their ability to show that students can improve under their tutelage.

However, in the case of Zuckerberg's donation, there are no plans or conditions attached to his money, as of yet.

A donation of this size is rare, but not unheard of, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given over $5 billion to K-12 education, with $100 million to Tampa's Hillsborough County School District to overhaul teachers and education.

This is Zuckerberg's largest donation to date, and comes close to the time to when he'll be battling the move "The Social Network" and its accusation that Zuckerberg may have stolen the idea to Facebook. It's an unauthorized biopic, and Zuckerberg has indicated that he's unhappy with the movie's depiction of him.

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