The Primary School closes after CZI funding ends

The Primary School, which served children from disadvantaged families, was funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Following the end of that funding, the school has decided to close.

In California, more than 500 pupils now need to find another school after the closure of The Primary School. The school was established for children from struggling families and financed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, or CZI. This is the philanthropic organisation founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. According to The Wall Street Journal, CZI contributed more than $125 million to the project over a period of more than 10 years. With this funding now ending, the school has been forced to shut down.

Support for The Primary School families after closure

The school's announcement also states: “To carry forward The Primary School’s legacy, CZI will invest $50 million over the next few years in the communities of East Palo Alto, Belle Haven and East Bay.” These investments will include education savings accounts for every pupil, “to support their future learning”. Support is also planned to help families through the transition, although the situation remains difficult for them.

As well as providing free education, The Primary School delivered comprehensive support, including tailored learning based on each child's difficulties and care for both physical and mental health. “It was a godsend school,” said the mother of a daughter enrolled at the school, quoted by The Wall Street Journal. She described its closure as “devastating”.

A shift in direction for CZI

When Priscilla Chan announced the opening of The Primary School in 2015, she said that her experience in education and as a paediatrician had convinced her that a better approach to schooling was needed. “The effects of trauma and chronic stress are an invisible burden on children, preventing them from staying healthy and reaching their full academic potential. We must address these issues holistically in order to enable children to succeed,” she wrote.

More than 10 years later, however, the experiment is coming to an end. Officially, this is because the project did not achieve the expected results. A CZI representative, quoted by The Wall Street Journal, said the school's board had made the decision to close it. Decisions made by the Zuckerberg couple's foundation are said to be driven by academic outcomes rather than costs. Last year, Priscilla Chan also told the WSJ that results were well below the targets set by the board.

A complex model that proved difficult to sustain

The school also appears to have been hard to run because of the complexity of its approach, leading to a high turnover of headteachers. Despite support from Mark Zuckerberg's wife, the project also struggled to secure other funding sources. The aim had been to create a model that could later be replicated through public funding. Beyond these issues, the Zuckerberg couple's organisation is now placing greater emphasis on scientific research.