Startup:Education

Interesting report on WNBC-TV last night on the Facebook/Oprah/Booker/Christie alliance and where the $100 million challenge grant would be spent. They when straight to the head of the class: the Robert Treat Academy.

No surprise there. Then governor-elect Christie visited Robert Treat Academy last November, one of his first stops after the election, saying…

“This school is teaching children 11 months a year, 5 ½ days a week for a cost that’s two-thirds of what the cost is in the regular public school in Newark,” Christie said. “This is a model that we should replicate all over the state of New Jersey. There is no reason that it can’t be replicated.”

So there they were, all together with Oprah today, and Mark Zuckerberg announced his challenge grant through the Startup:Education foundation. The video is worth watching.

Here’s the report from CelebTV…

Uh, yeah: the foundation’s got a Facebook page.

There are many different challenges all facing education at once. Teaching needs to be more respected and revered as a career. School districts need more autonomy and clearer leadership so they can be managed more like startups than like government bureaucracies. And outside the classroom, we need to support students’ interests, give them a safe environment to grow up in, and keep everyone healthy.

Our first project is Startup: Newark — to transform Newark, NJ into a national symbol of educational excellence.

Facebook for Non-Profits

If you’re a non-profit, you’ll love this free eBook by Shabbir Imber Safdar and Shayna Englin.