Interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw halted by possibility rain might collapse tented makeshift studio
Newark Mayor Cory Booker talks about the donation to the Newark Public Schools by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, center, at Robert Treat Hotel on Saturday.NEW YORK — Newark Mayor Cory Booker has secured $40 million of the $100 million needed to match a grant from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to transform the Newark Public Schools, he announced on NBC this morning.
“We have $60 million to go,” Booker said. “When we get to $200 million, we will have a powerful tool in our toolbox to get things done.”
Booker appeared on NBC with Gov. Chris Christie and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as part of “Education Nation,” a week-long summit hosted by the network to address the crisis of low student achievement in public education.
Though he did not name donors publicly during his appearance on NBC, Booker said that the Pershing Square Foundation, headed by New York investor William Ackman, pledged $25 million, and donations from Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and the founders of investment firm Eagle Capital Management , Beth and Ravenel Curry, total another $15 million.
Just as Booker announced the matching funds, NBC veteran anchor Tom Brokaw evacuated the tented, make-shift studio where he was interviewing Booker, Christie, and Zuckerberg because of concerns that heavy rains in midtown Manhattan might collapse the tented studio erected atop Rockefeller Center’s famous skating rink.
NBC officials said the interview would resume in a new location, but it has not. Officials later said the participants were on a tight schedule and could not wait for NBC to secure and set up a new location for taping.
Before the evacuation, Booker said he would measure the success of his effort to transform Newark’s public schools not by the volume of money raised, but by the improvement in classroom achievement.
“The most important part is that this level of commitment from Mark must be matched by the community,” Booker said. “This is a challenge to everyone in Newark – no more inverted pyramid of school reform.”
Neither Booker nor Zuckerberg would detail what Newark will use its $100 to $200 million on, but Booker said use of the funds would be “flexible” and decided with input from Newark’s community.
“We know in Newark that every one of our children has genius inside them, and we need to find a way to nurture that,” Booker said. “We will use this flexible funding to apply the right pressure to make the dramatic changes necessary.”
Christie acknowledged the unlikely partnership between himself, a Republican governor, and Booker, a Democratic mayor, but said their partnership is not about politics. Rather, it’s about aligning spending in Newark’s public schools with results.
“We’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve spoken about education for a very long time,” Christie said of Booker. “Money combined with a lack of accountability is a duel obscenity. To spend that kind of money and get those kinds of results is unacceptable to me and it's unacceptable to Cory.”
Newark students’ performance on standardized tests rank among the lowest in the state and just over 50 percent of the district’s students graduate from highs school.
When asked by Brokaw before the evacuation whether he would “write a check and walk away,” Zuckerberg tuned to Booker and answered that their effort to restructure Newark’s schools is long-term.
“We want accountability for results, but at same time, my goal isn’t to have an agenda to improve schools,” Zuckerberg said. “I believe in the mayor’s vision to get this done and I want to provide flexibility for them to get things done. I hope we see some great results.”
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