In December, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated $500 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for projects related to health and education. Zuckerberg and the Community Foundation haven’t announced yet what they have in mind, so that got us thinking: why not pass along some ideas?
We asked some educators and EdSource Today contributors from Silicon Valley what they would do if they had $500 million to give away. For the purpose of this exercise, we assumed the interest from the money (roughly $25 million annually) would go to schools in Silicon Valley – Santa Clara and San Mateo counties – for education, broadly defined to include health and wellness from preschool through high school.
Their suggestions are below. We hope you’ll join the conversation by posting comments with your ideas as well.
Xavier De La Torre: Invest in a virtual K-16 school
Xavier De La Torre
Mr. Zuckerberg’s generosity should be invested in developing a county-sponsored, virtual K-16 charter school complete with comprehensive, Common-Core-standards based, teacher-led, online courses that meet California’s A-G requirements and college/university courses required to earn a baccalaureate degree. Using the economics of the Internet, we can connect some of the greatest teachers to thousands of students who need credit recovery; who wish to accelerate their learning; whose lives and realities require greater flexibility than we can offer in our brick-and-mortar schools; who are not being engaged or challenged in their current classes; who want to complete college courses while still in middle or high school; and who have dropped out of school but have an interest in returning. Colleges and universities are already recognizing