The founder and CEO of the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg plans to announce that he will donate $100 million to the public school system in Newark, New Jersey.
He scheduled to make the announcement on Friday and will coincide with the release of the movie, The Social Network, by David Fincher that documents the meteoric rise and the short history of the number #1 social networking site in the world. The site that has over 500 million users and is valued at more than $20 billion was founded at Harvard University by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and launched in February 2004. There has been controversy in the past, however, that Mark had stolen the ideas from his friends. Mark is estimated to be worth around $6.9 billion by Forbes and is the thirty fifth richest man in the US even higher than Apple’s Steve Jobs.
The generous donation was made on the Oprah Winfrey show which will aired soon, and Mark was accompanied by by Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on the show as well. Newark has had a particularly tough time when it comes to education, with the city spending $22,000 per year on each of the city’s 40,000 students, less than 50 percent of whom graduate, and only 20 percent of which further their education at a four-year college.
Zuckerberg is reportedly creating a foundation with its chief goal being to enhance America’s education system and some of the donation could go to that as well.