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Cory Booker and Mark Zuckerberg
It started on Oprah.
Facebook founder and Winklevii nemesis Mark Zuckerberg announced a $100 million donation to Newark schools to blunt PR damage from the release of The Social Network help school children. The money would not be going into the struggling city’s budget but would be privately controlled with Newark Mayor Cory Booker providing guidance.
Yes, money used to transform Newark public schools would be administered privately and, until recently, in secret from the people of Newark.
Privatizing schools in Newark was already a tough task this year after the crown jewel of charter schools in the city was caught up in a cheating scandal. Apparently telling teachers they get paid more/remain employed if their students do better on tests leads to gaming the test system – who knew monetary incentives lead to the pursuit of self-interest? The strategy was clear, use the private money to launch attacks on public schools and keep anyone from seeing how.
That last part of the strategy just hit the wall. The American Civil Liberties Union won a lawsuit forcing the release of emails between Mayor Booker and Facebook executives:
NEWARK – A Superior Court judge has ordered the City of Newark to release emails that were exchanged about the $100 million pledge that Facebook founder