The goals Zuckerberg set out to achieve – to enact a number of reforms that would make Newark a model city for education reform – are widely seen as a failure, journalist Dale Russakoff told Business Insider.
So where exactly did that $100 million go if the turnaround was a failure?
Russakoff mapped the money trail in her new book “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools,” which tracked the five years since Zuckerberg’s donation.
The $100 million from Zuckerberg actually became $200 million under the agreement other sources would match his contribution. Here’s where that money went:
- Labor and contract costs: $89.2 million
- Charter schools: $57.6 million
- Consultants: $21 million
- Various local initiatives: $24.6 million
Zuckerberg envisioned the teacher contract reform to be a centerpiece of the reform and contributed $50 million – half of his total donation – to go to working on that cause.
Zuckerberg wanted to be able to create more flexibility in teacher contracts to reward high-performing teachers and to fire teachers with poor records of student achievement.
But those types of protections are determined by New Jersey law, and Zuckerberg couldn’t simply come in and change the rules without going through the state Legislature to make the changes.