Facebook’s Zuckerberg Donates $100 million for Newark School

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg gives huge donation of $100 million to Newark Public schools to improve the public education on the eve of the release of the new movie “The Social Network”. The donation will be announced on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday with appearances by Zuckerberg, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. He denied the allegation that he made this donation to distract the public attention of a movie that portrays him as arrogant, socially out of place, and very bright.

Zuckerberg’s Startup, Education Foundation will get the donation, which will disburse the cash. He also wanted to get involved with many charity efforts in the forthcoming years. Newark’s 40,000-plus student public school system is among the worst in New Jersey. Only 40 percent of students are able to read and write after the third grade. Although, the state took control of the schools in the mid 1990s but there was not much improvement.

This is the largest donation that the Newark school system has ever received.  Zuckerberg, 26, has net $6.9 billion and is now No. 35 on Forbe’s magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans. The donation is made with the purpose to find a match.  Together, the $200 million is going to be more than 20 percent of the school system’s total budget.