I am 1,000% in support of great education and great teachers. I have family members and friends who are teachers and some of my mentors are teachers as well. So when I heard that Mark Zuckerburg, CEO and Founder of Facebook have stepped up to donate $100 million of his own money to help New Jersey’s Newark public schools, I was very much impressed. The Newark schools are notoriously considered among the worst in the nation. So this money can definitely go a long way to help the struggling school system. But then I wondered if this generous act of philanthropy was genuine or is it a PR chess move, shining positive light on the 26 year old CEO’s recently tainted image. I mean, one has the right to wonder about the timing of all of this. You have Forbes magazine, which recently placed Zuckerburg at number 35 on the Forbes 400 list. With his earnings of $4.9 billion within the last year alone, this makes his net worth $6.9 billion and making him richer than Apple’s head man in charge, Steve Jobs, who is worth $6.1 billion. Then you have “The Social Network”. The controversial movie, which paints Zuckerburg as a power hungry, socially-awkward college student who stole the idea of Facebook, is scheduled to be released next Friday. So again, whose image is being helped more? I am more inclined to root for the schools. They can really use the help and the donation can have a tremendous effect on those kids. Besides, if the movie’s storyline holds any verity, giving $100 million or more, won’t help Zuckerburg erase that stubborn stain called the past.
