The Primary School, offering tuition-free education to low-income families, has officially closed, impacting around 540 children who depended on its support. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the school’s benefactor, is redirecting its resources towards biotechnology and artificial intelligence. As part of its commitment, it has announced substantial funding aimed at assisting affected students and local organizations.
When you don’t have money, you want to hoard all that you have. But when you are a billionaire like the Zuckerbergs giving away millions of dollars in charity is the least expected from you. What is not expected is for you to take them back and recently the billionaire couple has made one such move that has sent people into shock and families into worry.In 2016, Dr Priscilla Chan, the wife of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg co-founded a school for low-income students. Funded through her philanthropy with her husband, the private, tuition-free school aimed to support the “whole child” through wraparound services, including free dental checkups, early intervention screenings and wellness coaching for parents. When it opened, it joined a long list of efforts by the country’s wealthiest, dating back to Andrew Carnegie, to put their stamp on the American classroom.Over the past decade, the institute known as The Primary School, received more than $125 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. But it shut down in June this year. Back in April 2025, the board voted unanimously to close the school after learning that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative wouldn’t fund it after the 2025-26 academic year, as per a WSJ report. According to board president Jean-Claude Brizard, before the vote to close, he shared numerous options with CZI about the school’s future including “winding down.” The board wouldn’t have voted to close without alignment from their biggest funder, he said. A CZI spokesperson said the decision to close was up to the school’s board and that the organisation was focused on the school’s academic results, not the cost.
A godsend
Nearly 540 children were enrolled at the Primary School’s two campuses.
The Primary School’s closure has affected more than just a philanthropic effort, it will be changing the lives of communities. “It was a godsend school,” said Mele Fakapelea, whose daughter Telesia won a lottery spot in the founding class. Fakapelea later enrolled her four younger children into the school. She described losing the school’s support now, as “crushing.”Angelica Cardenas, 29, whose 3-year-old daughter was enrolled along with her siblings’ five children, said she heard about the closure from the news. “If they knew they were going to stop investing in our community, it should have been spoken about earlier on,” she said to the outlet.A Stanford University report found that in spring 2025, 14% of local students in third grade and above exceeded literacy standards; at the Primary School, it was 26%; statewide, it was 47%. Eighth-grade students, many of whom had attended the school for a decade, demonstrated above 50% grade-level proficiency in their final year, the school said. Moreover, about 85% of students had their annual well-child visit, compared with 55% of children on Medicaid in the county.Nearly 540 children were enrolled at the Primary School’s two campuses. The Ravenswood City Elementary School District is now preparing for an enrollment surge, renovating a campus to avoid packing students into portable trailers.But they are not washing their hands completely. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative pledged $5 million when the closure was announced. That includes paying the balance of the school’s lease to the district and supporting local groups to carry on some services. CZI also gave $3.6 million to education savings accounts: $10,000 for elementary students, $2,500 for preschoolers and $1,000 for children in early-childhood education.School leaders arranged tours of other schools, set up a station for parents to complete admission applications and called in a representative from a 529 savings plan to help parents open the accounts seeded by CZI.
An effort for community
At the time, Chan said her work as a paediatrician and at a Boston housing-project after-school program had taught her that systems to help children are often siloed. The school set out to help children overcome the effects of poverty and childhood trauma.Staff worked with community clinics to find high-needs families, including students with behavioural issues and learning disabilities. Three in four students spoke a language other than English at home. Chan was on campus often, including to read a Mo Willems book (“The Pigeon Needs a Bath!”) to kindergartners. During the launch of a curriculum with Sesame Workshop, Chan bantered with Elmo in a promotional video. Teachers attended the workshop’s 50th-anniversary gala and met Michelle Obama. Parents were often invited on campus regularly for coaching sessions and classes about child development.But as many things worked in favour of the school, they also did against it. The school had some challenges including a high principal turnover. Chan was on campus often, including to read a Mo Willems book (“The Pigeon Needs a Bath!”) to kindergartners. During the launch of a curriculum with Sesame Workshop, Chan bantered with Elmo in a promotional video. Teachers attended the workshop’s 50th-anniversary gala and met Michelle Obama.Chan was the school’s cofounder and board chair for about eight years, until 2023; CZI was the main funder. Having one major backer in perpetuity hadn’t been the original plan, CZI said, but rather a model that “could be sustained through primarily public investment.” To that end, the Primary School said it tried to keep per-pupil spending at a reasonable level for a public school.Chan lobbied her network to “bring in other funding sources,” said CZI, but finding donors to supplement CZI was tough, said Brizard, who is the former head of Chicago’s public schools. “Why would you give money to an entity being funded by one of the wealthiest people in the world?” he said.Early last year, soon after Zuckerberg and Chan attended President Trump’s inauguration, CZI told staff its mission was changing. Funding for social advocacy had been “wound down” over the past several years to “align with our focus as a science philanthropy as well as the current legal and policy landscape,” staff were told. Funding for social advocacy had been “wound down” over the past several years to “align with our focus as a science philanthropy as well as the current legal and policy landscape,” staff were told.The school’s demise marks the end of one of the most high-profile education efforts funded by the couple’s philanthropic arm, which has now shifted its focus from social issues towards scientific research, particularly AI. Zuckerberg’s Meta recently doubled down by committing over $130 billion to AI spending. Also, the couple has pledged the majority of their initiative’s $200 billion fund to biomedical research and, yes, AI. Go to Source
