Mayor Bill de Blasio will tap private donors — including a group helmed by Steve Jobs’ widow — to help create 20 new schools and remake 20 others in the first major expansion of his administration, officials said Thursday.
The XQ Institute, founded by Laurene Jobs, and Robin Hood, a deep-pocketed philanthropic group, will provide $16 million toward the initiative with the city spending an additional $16 million, officials said.
“This is a big endorsement of public education in New York City. With this support, we’re going to help educators, students and communities come together to design new schools and re-design existing ones that will challenge our kids and increase academic rigor. I want to see great schools in every neighborhood,” de Blasio said in a statement.
The city will tap varied stakeholders — including teachers, students and community activists — to submit design plans for the new and refashioned campuses.
Selected groups will then advance to a final round of submissions in the winter and spring of next year, with winning presentations to be announced next May.
The private-public initiative will create 20 new or refashioned high schools with at least one in each borough, officials said. Another 20 projects will be a mix of elementary and middle schools.
“The 20 new schools will not have selective admissions,” City Hall stressed in a press release.
The CEO of Robin Hood, Wes Moore, called for more collaboration between charter school networks and the traditional public school sector in a statement accompanying the announcement.
“We are eager to work with the City and Department of Education to launch new schools with new visionary leaders at the helm who are well-poised to serve the children in our most under-resourced communities, and to expand the sharing of effective practices between charter and district schools,” Moore said.
Robin Hood, whose board boasts business titans ranging from hedge funder David Tepper to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, will also fund the formation of new New York charter schools during the same span.