The primary school, a tuition-free private school with 543 students co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg’s wife, Priscira Chan, will close its doors after about a decade of operation.
The school, which has two locations in the San Francisco area, said Note Its website indicates that it will be closed after the 2025-2026 academic year. To maintain that legacy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, or CZI, a charity for billionaires, will invest $50 million in the communities served by nonprofits (East Palo Alto, Bellhaven and East Bay) over the next few years.
“This is a very difficult decision and we are committed to ensuring a thoughtful and supportive transition for students and families next year,” according to a memo posted late Thursday.
Elementary school spokesman Carson Cook had no comment beyond the statement.
According to the Entity tax form, pediatrician Chang, age 40, co-founded the school in 2016. The first middle school cohort of the nonprofit began in 2023.
According to the latest tax forms, more than 95% of elementary school East Palo Alto students are in the minority minority. The filing shows that it has more than $30 million in assets at the end of June 2023.
Musk, Ellison
Elementary schools aren’t the only such initiatives that billionaires have launched recently. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison have opened all of the schools over the last few years.
Musk Foundation, a nonprofit organization for Musk, has donated $237 million to his education venture. This is an Austin technology-focused middle school, and ultimately plans for the university. The school, Ad Astra, is partnering with the same company where Ellison has founded Hala Kahiki Montessori School in Lanai, Hawaii, and works with 98% of the islands owned by the founder of Oracle corp.co-. Bezos, co-founder of Amazon.com Inc., has created a Montessori-inspired kindergarten network for children in poor communities.
The closure of primary schools comes as Zuckerberg (40), founder of Meta Platforms Inc., is fundamentally changing his business empire to better align with the Trump administration. He has appointed longtime Trump allies to the board, including Duna White and Dina Powellma Cormick, CEOs of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, who served as Trump’s deputy national security advisers during his first term.
I also tapped ZuckerbergRepublican strategistTo serve as Chief of Global Affairs, he eliminated Meta’s US fact-checking program, dismantled the company’s hate voice policy, and keyedDiversity, equity, inclusionProgramming with Meta and CZI.
Elementary schools prioritized diversity efforts and conducted an audit in June 2020 in response to the protests of Black Lives Matter and established the fallen DEI Task Force.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
