Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey made Oakland’s day on Friday, giving public schools $10 million to ensure that every child that attends a public school in Oakland has a home computer and internet access. Dorsey stepped up less than 24 hours after the school district launched its new campaign.
On Thursday, Mayor Libby Schaff and local education officials announced Oakland Undivided, an ambitious initiative to raise $12.5 million so that the thousands of kids that still don’t have internet access can get connected.
Enter Jack Dorsey, CEO and Co-Founder of Twitter, with a $10 million gift - which left the Mayor’s Director of Education David Silver floored.
“Elation, screams, speechless,” said Silver, “it was like a dream.”
The money didn’t come out of nowhere, Dorsey has been in conversation with the Mayor’s office about helping Oakland somehow. Silver said on top of the $1.8 million the campaign had already raised, Dorsey’s donation essentially covers this program in one fell swoop.
“What he has done is tremendous and it will help close the digital divide so that in early August when kids come back, they will have a computer and internet at home,” said Silver, “and because he’s said it now, we can actually buy the stuff now and take those couple months to make that happen.”
The equipment will be even more important if the next academic year is a hybrid, combing classroom and at-home schooling as expected.