NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday his philanthropic organization is giving $200 million to two New York City charter schools.
Harlem Children’s Zone and Success Academy are the recipients of the funding with both schools offering K-12 education in low-income areas.
The donations, part of Bloomberg’s Philanthropies’ national five-year $750 million effort to advance public education in the U.S., will provide $100 million to each school in order to help work to close the achievement gap for thousands of students from low-income families.
“Harlem Children’s Zone and Success Academy have both shown what’s possible when we put students first, set high expectations, and hold everyone accountable for results,” said Bloomberg. “This investment will help both organizations build on their extraordinary track records of achievement, open doors of opportunity for more children, and continue to raise the bar for schools around the city and the country.”
Other schools around the country will also benefit from Bloomberg funds as the organization plans to invest in more public charter schools in 20 metro areas whose student populations have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and where, on average, more than 80 percent of students receive free and reduced-price lunch, and more than 90 percent are children of color.
Harlem Children’s Zone serves more than 22,500 children and families annually, 99 percent of which are students of color and 90 percent are low-income. The school has a lot of plans for the donation money including upgrading their facilities to gain more classroom space and creating a scholarship fund for graduates to attend a New York State college or university debt free.
Success Academy serves over 20,000 students at 47 schools in four boroughs, 94 percent of whom are students of color and 78 percent come from low-income households. The school plans to open a new campus in the South Bronx and implement a new, fully integrated K-12 program.
“As mayor, Mike Bloomberg nurtured Success from the start. To this day, most of our schools operate out of public-school buildings to which he gave us access despite opposition from special interests,” said Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy. “Without this support, we’d be educating a tenth as many students. Now with this monumental gift, Bloomberg Philanthropies will help us make a giant leap from excellence to extraordinary — with a new K-12 campus that brings that vision to life.”
The funding is the latest in the organization's investment in NYC public schools. Last week, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the creation of Summer Boost NYC, a $50 million program that will support summer 2022 learning at public charter schools in New York City for approximately 25,000 K-8 students who have significant learning gaps that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
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