The progress of the donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other philanthropists is tracked in a newly released book entitled "The Prize: Who's In Charge of America's Schools?"
NEWARK - Where exactly did $200 million go?
It's a question often asked around Newark education circles, but very rarely answered with any kind of precision.
With the recent release of "The Prize: Who's In Charge of America's Schools?", however, author and longtime Washington Post reporter Dale Russakoff, aims to answer just that.
Beginning with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's donation of $100 million in 2010 (later matched by a group of philanthropic organizations), through the controversial implementation of the state's "One Newark" open enrollment plan and beyond, the book documents the high-profile attempt to remake Newark's perpetually failing schools.
MORE: Latest gift to Newark schools marks beginning of end for $100M Facebook fund
Along the way, nearly all of the $200 million was spent on items ranging from groundbreaking teachers contracts to school supply programs.
Here is Russakoff's accounting of the money (note that the figures in the chart are estimates, and exceed $200 million due to additional donations from philanthropic organizations):
Labor and contract costs: $48.3 million went toward a new teachers' contract that included incentives such as merit-based bonuses, $31 million in back pay and $4 million in graduate school tuition assistance. A combined $34.7 million has been committed for buying out district employees and a proposed new contract for principals.
Charter schools: Nearly $58 million was spent to support and encourage the expansion of Newark charter schools, which now educate more than a third of the city's children. Approximately $25 million of that was raised by organizations dedicated to the schools, such as the Newark Charter School Fund and NewSchools Venture Fund.
Consultants: More than $21 million was spent on outside experts contracted to gather information about the district, some at rates of $1,000 per day. Some were hired early on in the process to assess the needs of city schools and lay groundwork for later reform attempts, and others signed on later to help with labor negotiations, restructure the district's bureaucracy, analyze test scores and make other changes.
Teach For America: Approximately $1 million was spent to train teachers from the program, which sends recent college graduates to classrooms in needy districts around the country.
Community grants from Foundation for Newark's Future: The FNF, created to help manage the donations from Zuckerberg and others, has funded numerous programs aimed at helping students, teachers and other district employees. They include $2.1 million to help established four new high schools, a $3 million initiative to help parents start home libraries, $1.2 million for after-school and extended-day programming and $2.7 million to help layoff victims pursue college degrees or other professional certifications.
Remaining funds: As of last week, FNF President and CEO Kimberly Baxter McClain said her organization had approximately $30 million remaining in its coffers, which it expects to spend by June 2016.
Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
