Friended for $100 Million.

Friended for $100 Million http://alturl.com/2fysk

The FaceBook Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg founder plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country's worst performing public school systems. Newark spends about $22,000 a year on each of its 40,000 pupils, but only about half of its students graduate of which only one-fifth go to four-year colleges. More than 85% of the Newark students at community colleges need remedial help in math and English. The state took control of the troubled Newark system in the 1990s, and this month Gov. Chris Christie informed the city's superintendent that his contract wouldn't be renewed after June 2011.

Mr. Zuckerberg is setting up a foundation with $100 million of Facebook's closely held stock to be used to improve education in America, with the primary goal of helping Newark. Mr. Zuckerberg has had a long-standing interest in education, particularly teachers' low salaries, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Over the last year, he had a series of meetings with people involved in education and developed a relationship with Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Mr. Zuckerberg attended public high school in Ardsley, N.Y., before transferring to the private Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H.

The donation comes at a time when foundations and wealthy investors are increasingly funneling large amounts of money to public education—but with strings attached. In Washington, D.C., this year foundations pledged millions of dollars to pay for an increase in teacher pay that is tied to teachers' abilities to show they can help students improve. While Mr. Zuckerberg has made charitable donations in the past that have not been widely reported, this is by far his largest and represents his debut as a major philanthropist. According to the person familiar with the discussions, Mr. Zuckerberg decided he did not want to wait until he was near his career's end before getting involved in major philanthropy.

The announcement of the gift has been planned for Friday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" show, which has been using this week to draw attention to education. The timing of the announcement was driven by the Mr. Christie and Mr. Booker, over the objections of Facebook executives, said the person familiar with the discussions. Mr. Zuckerberg's pledge comes as the company he founded confronts a Hollywood film's scathing depiction of the executive. "The Social Network," which opens in wide U.S. release Oct. 1, suggests Mr. Zuckerberg may have stolen the idea for his social-networking site

Mr. Zuckerberg was not available, a spokeswoman for Mr. Christie couldn't be reached, and Mr. Booker declined to comment. A $100 million donation to a school district is rare, but not unprecedented. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pumped almost $5 billion into K-12 education, awarded Tampa' Hillsborough County School District $100 million last year to overhaul how teachers and trained and evaluated. No plans have yet been finalized on how the gift to Newark will be spent. Mr. Booker is supposed to draw up those plans and get community support for them, said the person familiar with the discussions.

The donation has the potential to be matched by another $100 million that Mr. Booker has been working on raising from private foundations and others. The $200 million that could be raised would amount to more than 20% of Newark's budget of $940 million. Under terms of the understanding between Mr. Zuckerberg, the Republican Mr. Christie and the Democratic Mr. Booker, the mayor would become the governor's representative to devise plans for the schools. according to a person familiar with the announcement. Mr. Booker plans to make education the focal point of his second term, just as he made crime the centerpiece of his first. Mr. Zuckerberg will fund for the foundation with his private stock in Facebook, and will arrange for a transaction on the secondary market for the foundation to turn the shares into cash as needed, said the person familiar with the discussions. The move will represent a relatively small dilution in his stake in the company, the person said.

Facebook has over 500 million users world-wide. Investors value the company at more than $20 billion. Mr. Zuckerberg owns more than a quarter of Facebook's stock, say people familiar with the matter.

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