The closure of two schools founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan has left the inner city families they were designed to help questioning how their children will achieve an education.
The New York Times reports that in a surprise announcement this week, The Primary School, a tuition-free educational institution founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, revealed that it would be closing its doors in the summer of 2026. The school, located in East Palo Alto, California, was established in 2016 with the mission of serving children from low-income families by providing them with access to education, health care, and social workers under one roof.
The Primary School, along with its sister campus in San Leandro, California, was one of the first beneficiaries of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization founded by the couple 10 years ago, which became infamous for its election meddling. The initiative provided approximately $100 million in grants to the school and related groups from 2018 to 2024. The schools were expected to eventually serve students from toddlers through eighth grade, with the 2025-26 school year marking the first time the Primary School would offer eighth grade.
Parents were stunned by the sudden announcement, which was made during a breakfast meeting with school administrators. Emeline Vainikolo, whose son is a kindergartner at the school, shared that parents were left “dumbfounded” by the news, and no clear reason was provided for the closure.
The timing of the closure has led some families to question whether it is related to the recent shift in Silicon Valley tech leaders’ attitudes towards DEI initiatives. Many of these leaders, including Zuckerberg, have been trying to court President Trump this year, resulting in a pullback on DEI initiatives at their companies and philanthropic organizations.
School leaders and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have provided little information about the reasons behind the closures. Jean-Claude Brizard, chairman of the Primary School’s board of directors, emphasized that the decision was not part of a DEI retrenchment by Zuckerberg. Instead, he cited the school’s struggle to attract funding from donors other than the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and its inability to demonstrate enough progress to convince public funders or additional private backers to support it.
As the affected communities grapple with the news, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has pledged to invest $50 million in the East Palo Alto and San Leandro areas, as well as provide education savings accounts for the schools’ students and “transition specialists” to help families find new schools.
Read more at the New York Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
