Jeff Bezos announced a massive $2 billion philanthropic initiative focused on early childhood education and homelessness.
Jeff Bezos has joined fellow billionaires in investing deeply in the US education system. Earlier this fall, Bezos set up a Day One Fund with $2 billion committed, with the intent to fund free preschools in low‑income communities.
We’ll use the same set of principles that have driven Amazon, Bezos said as he made the announcement. Most important among those will be genuine, intense customer obsession. The child will be the customer.
According to the announcement, the Bezos Day One Academies will be a network of high-quality, full-scholarship, Montessori-inspired preschools.
The fund’s second priority is focused on homelessness:
The Day 1 Families Fund will issue annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families.
Critics and advocates alike question the increasing role of billionaire-driven philanthropy in education. According to Nonprofit Quarterly:
If billionaires are interested in creating structural change, education is a smart investment. But what kind of education they are funding—and whether they are willing to support the kind of long-term change necessary—is another question.
Bill Gates Calls U.S. Education a Challenged Space, Urges Major Math Overhaul
In a wide-ranging interview with The 74, Bill Gates shared his foundation’s latest focus on education—and why math education is now top priority.
Even pre‑pandemic, what the U.S. had was very disappointing. Math is a basic skill for many areas, and your attitude and success with regard to math is very predictive of whether you graduate high school or go on to higher education.
The biggest source of inequity is the education system.
The Gates Foundation has now made math its central educational priority.
Our U.S. education work has shifted to math as our biggest priority by quite a bit.
We have a good dialogue with a lot of school districts, and now we’re backing a set of platform providers who are providing more engaging materials.
We need to be able to say to teachers: Hey, you’ve got limited time. Here’s what’s working best. So we think we can help build that measurement layer in.
When asked about the road ahead, Gates added:
We will not have remedied our NAEP deficit – even to get back to where we were before the pandemic. So U.S. education is a challenged space.
Still, Gates emphasized a note of cautious optimism:
There is a gigantic upside in improving our public education system, both economically and in terms of equity. But the country’s not falling apart as much as you might think.
Sources:
- Nonprofit Quarterly. Billionaires Focus Their Philanthropy on Education—But Will Children Benefit?
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/billionaires-focus-their-philanthropy-on-education-but-will-children-benefit/ - The 74. U.S. Education Is a Challenged Space: In Exclusive 74 Interview, Bill Gates Talks Learning Recovery, AI & His Big Bet on Math
https://www.the74million.org/article/u-s-education-is-a-challenged-space-in-exclusive-74-interview-bill-gates-talks-learning-recovery-ai-and-his-big-bet-on-math/
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