The news that Mark Zuckerman, co-founder of Facebook, is reportedly donating $100 million towards (note the preposition) the Newark Public Schools has lit up the blogsphere. The donation will be made (where else?) live on Oprah. On Friday...the day The Social Network, which is apparently rather unflattering in its portrayal of Zuckerman, opens in at the New York Film Festival (it opens nationwide next week).
A few things to note in this:
- the money isn't going directly to the Newark schools. It's starting a new foundation which will work with the schools
- while there's ties between Governor Christie and Mayor Booker of Newark on standardized testing (pro), charter school expansion (pro), and tying teacher evaluation to student test scores (pro)--your basic "edeform" package--Newark is different from many of the pushing-for-school-control strong mayor cities in that Newark has been under state control for 15 years (with, by most accounts, no improvement). Christie is giving Booker more of a say in the public schools, while not at all increasing public control.
- there's some talk they may hire Michelle Rhee when/if she leaves D.C.
Jim Horn quits Facebook.
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