"It sounded to me at the time like, well, that's enough money to do anything," Russakoff recalled of watching Zuckerberg announce the gift before a whooping "Oprah" audience in 2010, joined by a political odd couple in the form of Newark's charismatic, reform-minded Democratic mayor at the time, Cory Booker, and New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie.
"I didn't think it was going to be the miracle that they talked about," Russakoff said, "but I thought that it was going to be noticeable, positive change in education in a city that had been so neglected by history."
Plagued by corruption and mismanagement, the schools had been taken over by the state in 1995 — hence the importance of Christie's involvement. But the system remained a disaster, with fewer than 40 percent of third- through eighth-graders reading or doing math at grade level.
Russakoff, a former Post reporter, devoted the next several years to real-time reporting about what happened to Zuckerberg's $100 million and another $100 million in matching funds. The effort she relates in her resulting book, "The Prize," is a far more complex and humbling endeavor than anticipated, a case study in the difficulty of translating good intentions into concrete results.
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Throwing pearls before swine...whose ears can't be made into silk purses.
ReplyDeleteMore proof that give more money to the Board to education through higher taxes won't make a better school until spending and corruption are controlled. That is why we desperately need an elected school board! Private schools operate at a quarter of what the BOE is getting and they do very well and the parents have a say in how their children are taught. I know this, because I had my children enrolled at a private christian school during their elementary school years. When they I could no longer afford the tuition, they went to middle school. They were already two grades ahead of most of the public school kids in reading and math. We also didn't have to deal with bullying or the problems of inner city kids who don't care for and education and were disruptive in the classroom. At a private school, they counsel you with the parents and if the situation continues, they kick you out! No police, and no political correctness BS. No outcome based BS either!
ReplyDelete9:05-True,but amidst his brilliance he is still young and foolish as most of us once were.
ReplyDeleteelected skool boards are NOT the fix -take it from a neighbor in Worcester County, eliminating the influence of "the large and powerful multinational textbook publisher Pearson Education, the state’s educational bureaucrats, unaccountable local county school directors, and their far too compliant local school boards" ARE!
ReplyDeleteIf I hear "IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN " one more time I'll PUKE!!!
ReplyDelete