Chris Cerf and Sen. Cory Booker's chief of staff react to comments Mark Zuckerberg made about the donation last week.
Zuckerberg in a file photo.NEWARK — Have kids in Newark really benefitted from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to the city's school system?
In a Facebook post last week, Zuckerberg argued that, overall, they have — and local power players are agreeing.
"Newark students are quite simply better off now than they were five years ago," Sen. Cory Booker's N.J. Chief of Staff Mo Butler said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. Booker was mayor of Newark at the time of the donation, and even joined Zuckerberg and Gov. Chris Christie on the Oprah Winfrey show in 2010 to announce it.
Butler went on to cite some of the same statistics that Zuckerberg did in his Facebook post.
READ: Zuckerberg on donation -- "Change in education takes time"
"Look no further than the data for proof that this investment in Newark Public Schools is paying off," Butler said.
"In the last decade, the percentage of black students attending a school that beat the state proficiency average has tripled, and the odds of an African-American child being enrolled in a good school have doubled in the last five years," Butler said, also mentioning increases in graduation and state exam pass rates.
Though hailed in 2010, the donation became controversial as locals questioned where the money went, and whether or not it had any impact. Earlier this year, journalist Dale Russakoff released a book examining the donation, and what it was spent on.
Since the high-profile donation, the school district has been in a tumultuous period marked namely by its fight to regain local control. The state has controlled Newark schools since 1995.
In June, state officials announced that controversial superintendent Cami Anderson would be stepping down, and that former education commissioner Chris Cerf would take over. In a joint statement, Christie and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced that Cerf would lead the district during a transition period back to local control.
In a statement to NJ Advance Media about the course the district has taken over the past five years, Cerf said the Facebook donation was a good thing.
"We agree (with Zuckerberg) that the educators, families and especially the students of Newark have made great strides over the past several years," Cerf said in the statement.
In his post last week, Zuckerberg outlined what he said he learned from the donation, including that change in education "takes time." Cerf acknowledged Zuckerberg's assertion that transforming education in a large city is difficult.
"We also believe that having honest conversations about both the progress and challenges we encounter as a school district are extremely important," Cerf said.
"We look forward to continuing to work with the Newark community to build on the progress that has been made, while partnering to improve how we serve our students and families going forward."
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
