Tuition-Free Private School in Palo Alto is Closing
The Chan-Zuckerberg Institute is closing its tuition-free private school in Palo Alto after less than 10 years of service. The school primarily served low income and minority families, providing health and education services. Parents and families are now scrambling to find a school to send their children to, and may have to resort to costly replacement services. Families will receive $1,000-$10,000 depending on the children’s grade level to assist in the transition, which is not nearly enough to pay for private school in Palo Alto. Public schools are underresourced and do not have the same services that many of these families came to rely on.
It’s great that a school existed that provided these comprehensive, wraparound services for low income families. What is not as positive is that it was closed with no notice and no reasoning according to the whims of billionaires. All schools should be providing these services due to consistent, stable funding. That way, these families would not have to scramble and pay thousands of dollars they cannot afford for services they formerly got for free. The amount of money invested in The Primary School may be negligible to the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative, but it can be make or break for the students and families served by the school. Proposition 13 reform would provide public schools with a substantial chunk of money that could be used to provide some of the services The Primary School provided. The Primary School shows how good our schools can be, but also gives us a cautionary tale as to what will happen if we don’t fund our schools.
Jessica Flores/S.F. Chronicle
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