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Zuckerberg's $100 Million Education Gift Solved Little
An anonymous reader writes "In 2010 the state of public education in Newark, New Jersey was dire. The city's school system was a disaster, replete with violence, run-down buildings, and a high-school graduation rate of only 54%. Newark's mayor at the time, Cory Booker, teamed up with governor Chris Christie to turn the schools around. At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg was looking to get his feet wet in big-time philanthropy. The three hatched a plan, and Zuckerberg committed $100 million to reforming the schools. Four years later, most of the money is gone, and Newark's children are still struggling. Tens of millions were spent on consulting groups, and yet more went to union negotiations. Plans to change how teacher seniority affected staffing decisions — in order to reward results rather than persistence — were dashed by political maneuvering. The New Yorker provides a detailed account in a lengthy piece of investigative journalism, and MSN provides a summary."
Rich man donating large sums of cash to education system shocked to find systems flaws are of great complexity and cannot be solved by simply shitting large sums of money into education. When reached for comment, Rich man was found paralyzed by indecisiveness during elusive hunt for tasty caviar on weekend aboard mega yacht.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Thank you for your attempt. Next time hire me to handle it and come up with a plan based on set goals and achievements.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Throwing money at every problem doesn't make it go away. Who woulda thunk it?
While I appreciate the research potential of this experiment I just don't think people are looking at the human element when it comes to social problems like education and welfare. Our politicians don't seek a better answer because they don't care that people are wasting their lives on reality TV and booze as long as they get their pockets lined from it.
there was a time when they paid more taxes, and they were still rich (and also employed many others in this same country).
mfwright@batnet.com
Who the fuck links to MSN? Sponsored much?
If my inferior public school education is any guide, I believe that is technically known as "begging the question". There was no evidence beforehand that there are significant problems with US K-12 education on average, but there was and is absolutely zero evidence that the vast majority of teachers weren't already working hard 'to achieve results' before Grover Norquist and Michelle Rhee got involved to "improve" the situation. On the other hand, there is over 100 years of evidence as to why schools tend to evolve toward seniority systems (hint: not to protect "incompetent" teachers), all of which was ignored.
sPh
I'm not surprised a bit. Show me a teacher who gives a damn about his/her students and I'll show you a hundred who don't. Combined with an administration that just sees each head as a number, and even the most hippie head-in-the-clouds-I'm-going-to-change-the-world teacher will be worn down eventually.
And I'm not even going to get started on the parents--Jersey Shore, anyone?
a multi-billionaire like Zuckerberg just didn't give enough.
a measly $100mil?? it should of course had been $500mil
THEN...the problems could really be solved!
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
Imagine the 3D printers they could have bought instead? We'd have a whole generation of makers now! No one could resist our might, or our ketchup nozzles!
"A fool and his money are soon parted."
(Zuck should have Googled it).
bottom line: it ain't a MONEY thang.
We spend more on public education in America than any other country. Money is clearly not the problem unless you are talking about controlling waste spending and corruption. Liberal idealists cannot come to terms with the ideas of hard discipline and failing students who disrupt other students' education. Social liberals are too afraid of the politically correct reality that some students need to be held back. Instead they will bankrupt society to try to find any solution that doesn't cause people to "track" students. Tracking being the process of putting some kids into an honors level classroom and then failing others and holding them back. It's more politically correct to throw money at schools with horrid student bodies than admit that the problems have little to do with money.
Conservatives are generally no better. They preach fiscal responsibility but then privately take taxpayers and citizens to the cleaners to advance their own personal agendas and businesses. Chris Christie had no problem duping some morons out of $100 million just to get himself a nice photo opportunity and some good press. Christie and Booker knew that any donated money was free from public oversight. A con in broad daylight.
In America we pay the highest cost per capita for public schools. Our rewards as taxpayers? Graduation rates in the 50-60% range for large cities. Illegal immigrants using public schools as nothing more than free daycare centers. Kids who graduate with no skill sets and are churned out just so a school can keep its funding. Abandoning of once good public schools by wealthy citizenry who can afford to take their kids into a neighboring school system in the suburbs that actually is an environment of learning. Detroit is the future of lots of cities. Newark is another corrupt murder capital with crumbling schools yet billions to spend on solutions that never materialize.
If Christie, Booker, Zuck, and ever other smug douchebag wanted to really find a solution....they'd send their kids to these schools. If rich asshole politicians had kids in these schools you'd see no problems. If these liberal do-gooders had kids in these schools there would be far less problems.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that the Department of Education should do studies on how to teach kids & how to motivate them to do better ... how public vs. private vs. charter schools affect them, etc.
And study what the long-term effects are of just paying the kids when they get good grades:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com...
Because the short term seems to be that they do better ... and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than most other things that people come up with. (but then again, the money doesn't go to some corportation with a great 'solution' to the problem)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
The problem with the education system in this country are pretty strait forward. They stem directly from the completely inflexible teachers union (who should be ashamed of themselves) and management that does nothing more than attend endless meetings over and over that churn out bullet point after bullet point. My kids school actually has some pretty good teachers by some miracle, but the management issue is ridiculous. I try to be an involved parent but all the events they have are so ridiculous it borders on insanity. They always serve Pizza Pit, the champaign of pizza. Follow that up with great games or skits to entertain the crowd... then the principle gives a 30 to 45min speech about all the great plans she has (but will never implement) then they let the parents talk for about 10min and avoid answering all our questions like "When will you fill in the 6 foot sink hole in the middle of the playground?" and no, I'm not kidding, there really is a 6' sinkhole.
The last one I went to they sent out a questionnaire that asked:
What is most important to you in the education of your child?
a. Hands on learning
b. A diverse and equitable learning environment
c. An involved teaching staff
What the hell does that mean? I just circled them all and wrote "YES" underneath. And these people have 4 to 8 year degrees.
San Diego schools got lots of money years ago for teachers and supplies, most of it was spent in consulting what to do with it, the result was one new fence, and there was nothing wrong with the old one. It was all over the news
If the money was wasted by upper management, then that should be a big red flag that the problem is most likely with upper management.
Zuckerberg would have done better to have set up an endowment fund to pay for scholarships to private schools. If he wanted to have a longer reach, he could have created a foundation to build and operate a system of free private schools. His $100 M would probably not be enough for that, but such a foundation could prove the concept with one school, then solicit further donations to build more.
very old lesson.
Zuckerberg spends $100 million to prove that throwing money at broken public schools does not fix them.
Are we surprised? No.
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
I think he would have been better to use the money to set up training programs for skill sets that are useful to society, particularly infrastructure aspects like plumbing, electricians etc. May be use the money to set up in school programs for really specific things like programming, or target specific types of students to figure out what they might excel in.
I wouldn't be too worried about Zuck....I'm sure his "gift" was also a nice tax write off. Again, this just goes to show you that if you want to IMPROVE education, throwing more MONEY at it, will not work!
Sounds like the problem with Newark schools are the folks that -HAD- a great opportunity to make things better, but diverted it into each others pockets rather than into programs that actually increased the chances that the students would prosper? Is this a small scale version of municipal budgets and quest for opinion and appearance rather than results? I mean .. publicity and appearance over real change?
Time for a new Political party in the US (or two!) One is off the rails Other cant pony up a leader.
Which if any of the graphs on that ed.gov page are adjusted for inflation?
Well..if you give free money to managers, they will solve their issues....new yatch, new sports car, new house, 5* vacations.... of course, it will look as "work" from the accountability perspective....big invoices from consulting companies, fake construction, availability studies, etc.....just a bunch of paper. There is nothing more tempting to "administer" other's monies.... look at the Govt!...
If I ever meet you, I'll beat the living shit out of you.
Since that would require you being crane-lifted out of the basement first it's probably not really much of a threat.
Throwing money at a problem does not result in a solution, it results in a well-funded problem.
John Taylor Gatto covers it pretty well in "The Underground History of American Education". It' available for online reading here:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm
The ones which say "Constant Dollars".
The Newark School District gets more money per pupil than the suburban school districts surrounding it. And its outcomes are far worse. It's not the money.
The one that says "constant dollars".
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The US education system is defective by design. It is designed to do anything but produce smart Americans. In fact, I would say it is designed to produce dumb, dependent Americans who will be loyal voters for the party most established throughout that system. It is no secret that the Democrat party controls the public education system top to bottom, and is interested only in producing Democrat voters.
It is not surprising in the least that Zuck's $100M did absolutely nothing to increase the quality of students leaving New Jersey's schools.
... the consultants got rich and the kids got nothing. Good work, guys. There's a special spot in hell for you.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I guess we can just call it karma for all the centuries you ignorant hicks enslaved them, built a whole country on top of them, and basically had them do all the work for your comfy lifestyle.
According to the parent page, the chart for per-pupil spending is already adjusted for inflation. As such, the $4,221 per student figure in 1969 looks to be close to the truth, except that it's *already* adjusted for inflation at that value.
As much as I would like to have a simple explanation like "spending is less than half what it used to be", the numbers don't lie.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
You can't just throw a bunch of money at a problem and expect a solution to come out. You have to decide on a solution and then throw a bunch of money at it.
It sounds like there were a ton of problems in New Jersey. Crumbling schools? Spend the $100 million fixing infrastructure. Kids have trouble at home? Spend the money on councillors and after-school programs. Poor teachers? Spend it on recruiting.
It seems like they went in with a lot of money and a grand poorly defined plan, a huge institution isn't just going to jump in and implement someone's poorly defined scheme, so instead of spend everybody was busy fighting over details and figuring out where the money should go. The result is the money is wasted in paperwork and of the stuff that got spent no one knows what actually worked.
I stole this Sig
The public school that receives the most funding and spends the most per child in the ENTIRE COUNTRY also has THE WORST RESULTS.
Odd how so many are repeating communist^H^H^H^Hsocialist bullshit about "1% paying their fair share and schools need more money!"
99 million of that went to killing the teacher's union. Am I right?
Zuckerberg spends $100 million to prove that throwing money at broken public schools does not fix them.
Zuckerberg spent $100 million in a botched attempt to funnel selected students into for-profit charter schools. Helping to break the public school system for those left behind.
And according to http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/01/26/education-spending-balloons-but-students-in-some-states-get-more-money-than-others/, the $4221 figure for 1969 is quoted in 2010 dollars.
So, no. Spending on kids has not gone down. But don't let that get in the way of a good rant against the evil 1%
Post office is model of efficiency, and studies show private and charter schools spend more on administrative costs (read:profit for the owners) that public schools. But hey, keep repeating a lie often enough and it's bound to become true sooner or later, right?
Or could it be that good education is really, really expensive, and that $100 million dollars isn't really a lot of money on the scale of a State of American. Could it also be that a lot of that $100 million was spent on trying to make the school district turn out cheap employees for facebook?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
MOD PARENT UP. Niggers are a complete boat anchor on performance in schools. Whether it's disrupting class to impress their friends, or behaving like bullies because "fuck you thats why". When our local school redistricted and the nigs were all put in one school, the scores and performance of the others climbed back above average. Segregation WORKS in schools
Maybe they should've tried to impress us a little harder then, instead of "BIX NOOD JIBBA JABBING" on the porch while whites, latins, and asians went to work.
money isn't a solution, its a tool like any other.
Zuck, keep your money to yourself, keep honing your skills, mature _then_ follow Gates' example and contribute.
Some years ago, when fantasizing about being a billionaire, I gave thought to how I would improve upon education.
The solution I came up with was to found my own network of private schools and colleges, which I could hold to a high standard due to them being under my control.
The private schools and colleges wouldn't be free to attend, per se, but I'd make it sort-of-trivially-easy for an ambitious student to gain admittance to the private high school without paying tuition (say, the student must participate in on-campus work, organized charity volunteer work, or extracurricular research work, or simply be gifted, etc).
Exceptional students at the private schools would be given scholarships to the colleges, and billionaire-money would attract top-tier professors and researchers. I fantasized about eventually running the top private research institution in the world.
In essence, you create a brand. Use the money to create top-tier colleges under a brand name, then 'franchise' private high schools under the brand, and funnel kids from those schools to the colleges.
Punctuate the concept with aggressive job placement assistance, complimentary career counseling and even therapy for all graduates that extends for for a lifetime beyond graduation. (I think this point is a huge idea in itself, to be honest, and is something that universities should do anyway).
Being a graduate doesn't just mean you got a degree there - it means you're part of a lifetime club, a member of a 'living network' (as opposed to 'social network') with high ideals in mind. Graduates would be encouraged to serve as mentors to students in their spare time in exchange for their lifelong benefits.
Above all, this all could exist without being exclusionary toward non-'members'. For instance, tuition credits could be earned for students who agree to tutor public school students in the community and 'take them under their wing'.
Basically, in the end, you have what a real society should be - a nurturing network of educators, counselors, mentors, and just plain *people* helping each other out for their entire lives. A community, you know? Rising tide, lifting boats.
I actually think this sort of thing could be profitable, and not an expense, in the long run. Once you are established as a top-tier educator, your 'product' will become desirable and those with money will gladly pay for their child's enrollment. Build a solid reputation for producing high-quality, well-rounded, well-adjusted, successful graduates, and marry that to the benefits of being part of this fantastic 'life support group', and you've got one hell of a desirable thing, here.
In short, if you want to do something right, do it yourself. Throwing money at a flawed system isn't going to fix anything. It's like trying to fix a leaky bucket by pouring more water in it.
Slashdot-reading billionaires, feel free to run away with my ideas and do something great with them. Also feel free to contact me if you need help in the implementation. :)
What do you really expect?
TFA says at least $20 million went into studies. How much money ended up actually making it into the schools, facilities, teachers, transportation, etc?
From the kids. You see how trickle down works?
While $100 million sounds like a lot of money it isn't and while a lot of these posts are doing a Nelson on Zuck "Ha! Ha!" I'd say that at least he put up some money to try and make a difference. Are we that jaded nowadays that when somebody makes an honest effort that we mock the effort? I mean sure it was naive given the circumstances but at least he tried. How many other billionaires out there are willing to pony up their checkbooks and contribute? We should at least applaud the effort and work towards fixing the system so that the next time somebody ponies up some much needed funds, it goes to the kids and not to a bunch of consultants and union reps looking to milk the situation.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Did he expect that money to be spent for the good of the kids? It's obviously gonna go in the deep pockets of everybody in charge.
While the rest of the world is forging on, making their schools better and producing much better students, the schools in America are failing, and have been failing for decades
Right now, if it is not because of the influx of foreign students and faculties (mainly from Asia, Europe, and South America) the academic standard for colleges and universities in the United States would have fallen too.
When will the Americans realize that they no longer have any time to waste ?
wow dude... this is why you don't get invited to parties. Racist. Wow. And so blantant about it.
I just.... wow. I didn't think your kind still existed. Eye opener. Wow..... And you didn't even post as an AC. You just said it. To everyone. Wow....
You need to hole up and examine yourself deeply. Something is wrong with you.
Three of my son's principals stopped being principals and went to "assistant superintendent" jobs at the school board. Higher pay, lower responsibilities. My sister and two of her kids are teachers. There's plenty of money in the school district but there isn't enough flexibility with state mandated laws/budgets to funnel the money where it is actually needed. Too much of "we can't use the money for that purpose because it has to be used for (fill in the blank). They can't even provide basic supplies like copy paper, pencils and classroom supplies because of inflexibility of the budgets for various reasons. My son's school is the same. They want the parents to come in on weekends and maintain the school grounds. Shit! They have union groundskeepers and they can't maintain the school. Then I went to my old elementary school to see weeds growing up in cracks of the pavement. It was NEVER that way when I attended. It was impeccably maintained. Yet, the school has obtained a magnitude of funding increases. Every time I see the school trying to shake me down for basic supplies and programs, I look at their requests with disdain. Now, we even get "suggested donation" sheets (Mount Diablo Unified School District) and If I were do donate what they suggest, it'd be nearly $800! What is this crap? The school district has some of the most-expensive homes in the county yet they can't manage their money! No thanks. The problem is a management and a government regulatory problem. Not a funding problem.
I'm ashamed to share a country with people like you... Racism is horrible.
There's your problem, right there.
Giving money to corrupt officials is an exercise in futility.
Direct cash reward for graduating.
Bonus for getting into an accredited university or trade school
Bonus for a clean criminal record
Build up the bonus over the months. Like an IRA. Send the students a message every month with their current balance. If they fuck up (truancy, criminality)... the balance goes to 0 and they start over again.
If 100M yields no results, call the FBI.
All those advisors and union officials need to go to jail now.
And kids, lesson of the day, all school work was a waste of time to graduate, just become a union official or politician, no qualififications, easy money, and your above the law.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
It's a Jersey thing.
Mr. Situation
They started out better than Detroit
We shouldn't be surprised that money went to "unions." As any business knows, the largest cost to their business is the cost of employees. Same is true with any school system; most money goes to teachers (and that's good). Any employee of any business also knows that when consultants are brought in, they simply repeat to management what employees have been saying all along, just at a higher rate of pay.
Consultants, in any area, a like blood hounds that can sniff out money. Shouldn't be surprised that so much went to them after the announcement if Zuckerburg's grant.
Citation needed.
Unless of course you're trolling, in which case, well played sir.
Modded incorrectly though either way.
I guess that's why California has some of the highest teacher salaries in the country but education scores are among the lowest in the country.
That's more than my elementary school in California spent per pupil in the 90s (probably $3.5k per pupil with 30 or more students per class). Moved to the NY area in around time and shocked to discover they spent $10k per pupil (frequently less than 30 students per class). Both are more now due to inflation ($5k for CA, $15-20k for NY).
The NY area school had more toys (more computers in the class room and whatnot), but I'd say their educational learning was about the same. Computers in the CA school were restricted to a couple rooms, but students got to use them (probably best way to use computers in the classroom). The CA school had a large Hispanic population, but they all spoke English (same as Russian students and even my family). The CA school had a library and pushed literacy by taking "library days" to encourage students to pick books to read. The CA school was suburban and not urban, but so was the NY area school. There was a least one shooting in a town near the CA school, but the NY area had bad places as well.
When I moved to the NY area, I got placed in higher-level classes after demonstrating aptitude at math. The idea that you need $30k per student for a decent education is ridiculous.
...what qualifications does one need to bill themselves out as a $1000 a day consultant in this industry?
And what are the barriers-to-entry?
In our county, the library system used to do outreach to the schools, where they'd go and try to get kids interested in reading ... but then the county went and fired all of the branch managers, and they didn't have staffing to keep it up.
Librarians require Master degrees in most areas (and may require a specialization if they work in a school library), but regularly make the 'lowest paid graduate degree' lists. .... but the schools and governments would rather appear 'cutting edge' or 'high tech' and give an iPad or Kindle to every student.
(disclaimer : I'm a member of our local Friends of the Library, and some of the best customers at our book sales are school teachers stocking their classrooms)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Wait, I was wrong. CA is 8.5k per pupil. NY is 13k per pupil (going by today's Google searches). The NY area high school spends $18k. The CA high school my brother attended spent $8.5k per pupil (but that may include entire school district, it's hard to find good numbers). My brother majored in math when he went to college.
I tend to think the problems that cause low graduation rates are most likely social or at home...Throwing money at schools won't fix those problems.
Your disgust at the sentiment is born of faith that somehow, some way, the hundreds of years of poor performance by the aforementioned will be proven wrong.
That sounds awfully much like the bible thumpers' belief in a deity's second coming. I thought you types were anti-religion?
I'm not one of those folks who doesn't champion a penchant for the obvious as a marketable skill.
The Newark School District gets more money per pupil than the suburban school districts surrounding it. And its outcomes are far worse. It's not the money.
I too, am adept at processing Bayesian inference, and that leads me to believe you're not blaming an equipment malfunction for this plane crash. Is it a personnel problem?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
... if I looked up my old slashdot postings from then talking about Gatto and Holt and homeschooling and unschooling.
You wrote: "the entire job of a teacher, particularly a K-8 teacher, is to evaluate students and set good progression goals for that student. ..."
Fairly accurate, but interesting you did not mention activities like communicating information or values in that... Or who sets the "goals" or what they actually are. As John Taylor Gatto says, the problem with most US schools is they are working as designed (originally in Prussia to deliver obedient cannon-fodder soldiers, obedient factory workers, and obedient citizens). So, if you give schools more money, they will only do that job better!
See: ... Before you can reach a point of effectiveness in defending your own children or your principles against the assault of blind social machinery, you have to stop conspiring against yourself by attempting to negotiate with a set of abstract principles and rules which, by its nature, cannot respond. Under all its disguises, that is what institutional schooling is, an abstraction which has escaped its handlers. Nobody can reform it. First you have to realize that human values are the stuff of madness to a system; in systems-logic the schools we have are already the schools the system needs; the only way they could be much improved is to have kids eat, sleep, live, and die there. ..."
http://www.newciv.org/whole/sc...
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com...
http://www.the-open-boat.com/G...
https://www.johntaylorgatto.co...
"I'll bring this down to earth. Try to see that an intricately subordinated industrial/commercial system has only limited use for hundreds of millions of self-reliant, resourceful readers and critical thinkers. In an egalitarian, entrepreneurially based economy of confederated families like the one the Amish have or the Mondragon folk in the Basque region of Spain, any number of self-reliant people can be accommodated usefully, but not in a concentrated command-type economy like our own. Where on earth would they fit?
That said, investments in groups like Khan Academy seem worthwhile... One of the few really good Gates Foundation investments perhaps...
https://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.gatesfoundation.org...
The Broad Foundation is making the exact same mistake as Zuckerberg...
http://www.broadcenter.org/
An alternative by me: :-) because ultimately local schools will grow into larger vibrant community learning centers open to anyone in the community and looking more like college campuses. New York State could try this plan incrementally in a few different school districts across the state as pilot programs to see how it works out. This may seem like an unlikely idea to be adopted at first, but at least it is a starting point f
http://www.pdfernhout.net/towa...
"New York State current spends roughly 20,000 US dollars per schooled child per year to support the public school system. This essay suggests that the same amount of money be given directly to the family of each homeschooled child. Further, it suggests that eventually all parents would get this amount, as more and more families decide to homeschool because it is suddenly easier financially. It suggests why ultimately this will be a win/win situation for everyone involved (including parents, children, teachers, school staff, other people in the community, and even school administrators
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Not sure if there is a such a thing but if not there ought to be. Home schooling scholarships could do much more to improve the lives of children helping them to avoid violent schools and still get a good education. It could provide them with computers and internet access and text books and possibly even provide small monetary support for a parent who stays works less in order to help home school their child.
Further proof that just throwing money at the problem doesn't necessarily solve the problem.
...that the more you spend on schools, the worse your results.
Find the sweet spot.