Built Mark Zuckerberg, closed a calendar invite: Inside the sudden fall of ‘The Primary School’ | World News

When Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg launched The Primary School in East Palo Alto in 2016, it was hailed as a revolutionary experiment. The school offered free tuition, health care, and counseling to students and families. Chan, a pediatrician and daughter of refugees, said she was in it for the long haul.
But this April, parents learned via video call that the school would shut down after the 2025–2026 school year. The reason? The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, its sole funder, abruptly pulled funding, forcing the school to close after the 2025–2026 school year. The closure has devastated families and reignited concerns about relying on billionaire philanthropy for essential public services, a report The Washington Post said.
The school’s closure leaves roughly 400 students — nearly 90% of whom are children of colour — without the support structure the school had promised. The local school drict, Ravenswood, will absorb many of these students, but officials admit the shift will create long-term financial pressure.
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What happened?
Former staffers say Chan had grown dant from the project and that its academic performance had stalled. The decision to close the school follows a broader shift at CZI away from social and political causes, a trend accelerated after Donald Trump’s reelection. The organizsation has since laid off staff, cut racial justice programs, and shut down statewide housing initiatives.
While CZI has pledged a parting $50 million — including education savings accounts for families and a $26.5 million grant to the school drict, many families feel abandoned. “It’s not fair for these kids,” said Shannon Todd, a parent of three Primary School students, The Post quoted. “She [Chan] gave us hope and pulled the plug.”
The school was once hailed as a “dream project,” rooted in a whole-child model. But turnover in leadership, an over-reliance on a single funder, and ambitious but uneven experimental practices — like “speech pedometers” to track how much students were spoken to — hampered progress.
The death of co-founder Meredith Liu in 2023 further danced Chan from the school, say insiders. As per the report Post, despite steady gains in literacy, a former adminrator said, “I don’t think it was enough time.”Story continues below this ad
Now, with CZI refocusing its efforts on science and AI, parents are left scrambling. “We have to start all over again,” said 24-year-old mom Gisselle Munoz. “It stresses me out.”