Zuckerberg Shutters Schools for Communities of Color as Trump Cracks Down on DEI

Back successful 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his partner, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, opened The Primary School, a tuition-free backstage schoolhouse opened with the explicit extremity of helping low-income families and radical of colour to entree education, healthcare, and societal services. A decennary later, they’ve seemingly deemed that each those problems are solved now, arsenic The Primary School announced it would beryllium closing for bully adjacent year—supposedly owed to deficiency of funding, which is 1 happening that shouldn’t beryllium a occupation erstwhile you’re backed by billionaires.

In the 10 years since The Primary School archetypal opened its doors to students successful East Palo Alto, the governmental crushed has shifted significantly, and it’s hard not to work into that astatine slightest a small successful the determination to shutter the schoolhouse now. When it opened, The Primary School explicitly recognized the challenges faced by families successful low-income areas, who often bash not person entree to well-funded acquisition options. On the school’s website, it acknowledges, “Because of systemic racism, communities of colour are disproportionately affected by these challenges and person the added load of not being capable to spend oregon entree capable services.” The schoolhouse was established with a “diverse team” with backgrounds successful education, healthcare, and household enactment to assistance widen resources to underserved communities.

Now? Well, present that smells an atrocious batch similar DEI to the Trump administration, and Zuckerberg has been sucking up to the President and his ghouls to service his ain ends.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg announced that Meta was axing its DEI programs—and that aforesaid crackdown connected thing that smells similar diverseness besides deed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that primitively funded The Primary School. The philanthropic limb of the Zuckerberg fiefdom scrubbed references to inclusivity oregon economical fairness from its website, per The Guardian, and informed its employees it was ending its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility team. All of that follows Trump’s crackdown connected DEI connected programs, including trying to withhold national backing from schools that fuss to admit that inclusion is simply a bully thing.

Shuttering the schoolhouse whitethorn beryllium arsenic elemental arsenic Zuckerberg aligning wherever his wealth goes to his existent interests and ends. But for the families who number connected the school, the determination is devastating. The committedness of the schoolhouse went beyond the classroom, and galore families were capable to get entree to attraction and services they different wouldn’t person been capable to.

Veronica Van Leeuwaarde, a ma of 2 students who attended The Primary School, told the San Francisco Standard that employees astatine the schoolhouse helped her get an assignment astatine Kaiser Permanente to sermon her son’s learning difficulties, which yet led to him being diagnosed arsenic having ADHD. That diagnosis and attraction would person been importantly harder for her to navigate connected her own. “Honestly, conscionable talking astir it makes maine privation to cry, due to the fact that it’s conscionable impacted my household truthful much,” she told the Standard.

The schoolhouse volition connection families betwixt $1,000 to $10,000 to assistance them enroll their children successful different school, per the San Francisco Chronicle. Per the Private School Review, the mean tuition outgo for backstage simple schoolhouse successful Palo Alto is astir $35,000, and $16,500 per twelvemonth crossed the authorities of California, truthful that wealth isn’t going to get these families each that far.

As for the claims of deficiency of funding, the Chronicle did note that The Primary School saw contributions driblet from $8 cardinal successful 2022 to $3.7 cardinal successful 2023, which is simply a important diminution successful backing to operate. If lone 2 of the radical progressive successful backing the schoolhouse successful the archetypal spot happened to beryllium worth astir $200 billion and promised to springiness distant 99% of their wealth. Sure seems similar this would beryllium a worthwhile task to springiness what amounts to pouch alteration to successful bid to support it open.