Mark Zuckerberg, wife to donate $120 million to Bay Area schools

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have pledged to donate $120 million to struggling Bay Area public schools.

The couple announced the large donation Thursday in an Op-Ed piece to the San Jose Mercury News as what they said was their commitment to improving education in the Bay Area and throughout the nation.

“The world’s most innovative community shouldn’t also be a home for struggling public schools,” they wrote.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, say they will be working to start a new district and charter schools in the Bay Area, giving parents more “high quality choices” for education.

The couple also plans to talk with educators and community leaders to better understand their needs.

The first $5 million will be used to support the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto, Redwood City School District and other needy communities in San Francisco.

Last year, Zuckerberg donated nearly $1 billion worth of Facebook stock to the the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, an organization that provides grants to regional nonprofit groups specializing in schools and the environment.

Zuckerberg’s latest act of philanthropy for education comes after a $100-million donation in 2010 to struggling schools in Newark, N.J. There, the couple worked to provide Internet access to every public school, as well as investing in computers and other technologies for classrooms.

“The investments we’ve made are a drop in the bucket compared to the challenges schools face,” the couple wrote.