Flaws with this setup aside, I wouldn't feel good about building a Trump compatible school.. And of course the expectation that they continue is just precedent/norms which means less than nothing in show power by arbitrary disruption land.
They could have easily kept to their original promises and let the school run for decades with the kind of fortune they possess, but they had to overtly shut it down after making some conspicuous other changes that speak volumes about a very specific type of sucking up.
You're a fucking mega multi-billionaire Zuckerberg, what are you so damned afraid of to pander so absurdly?
Even many of the conniving so-called robber barons of the previous century at least stuck to their philanthropic guns in the face of political administrative changes throughout the years they were alive.
Poor people. No matter the money.
Aeolun•9mo ago
falcor84•9mo ago
Edit: grammar fix
UncleMeat•9mo ago
falcor84•9mo ago
I wish this didn't apply to the person in charge of the government.
Aeolun•9mo ago
Sure, if more than 50% of the country votes for being shafted.
bko•9mo ago
The school was likely a failure. I couldn't find any stats on success of children but I find that telling as if it was lifting kids out of poverty effectively it would have been advertised. Its probably just not effective and the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Were this a public project it would have persisted indefinitely and have a lobbying constituency to keep setting money on fire.
We want more failed experiments. If committing to a venture where there is no off ramp if it doesn't work, no one will invest
UncleMeat•9mo ago
I also don't think that "the school was likely a failure" is a claim we can make in the modern world. Zuck (and other tech CEOs) is/are very clearly fleeing visible commitment to diversity initiatives.
"We will give out a bunch of cash to people who no longer have a school" is better than nothing, but absolutely nothing mandates that this happen the next time.
bko•9mo ago
> CZI plans to donate $50 million to the communities and families affected by the closure, the school said in its note this week.
Again, the point is no one is going to experiment if you can't wind it down.
I don't know if it's a failure but I know the 300m zuck spent in Newark schools was a huge failure and waste of money and very well documented. If it was a success they would be making a big show and not shutting it down
UncleMeat•9mo ago
woleium•9mo ago
em-bee•9mo ago
woleium•9mo ago
UncleMeat•9mo ago
Zuck has no such limitations.
interactivecode•9mo ago
AvocadoPanic•9mo ago
garygatory•9mo ago
bko•9mo ago
I don't know the answer is necessarily top down but someone needs to make the calls and have ownership.
bigbadfeline•9mo ago
Still sounds like a magic spell, as the first time I've heard it from Musk. Practically everyone on some sort of management position is a "career unelected bureaucrat". Electing each other on properly career-limited and non-bureaucratic positions sounds as much fun as cutting each-other's hair and fixing each-other's windows, if you know what I mean.
> You think an executive would allow for that?
Executives have a vested interest in as little-as-possible service at as high-as-possible price. Plenty of private schools do worse than most public schools and the only reason they don't do worse is... drum roll, please... career unelected bureaucrats!
> I'm thinking things like teachers unions that fought like hell to keep schools closed during COVID even when it became obvious that the virus was not especially harmful to children"
"to children"??? You think teachers are children? The president at the time was hyping the dangers of covid and blaming it on China, he's still blaming everything on China, well half of it, the other half goes to "career unelected bureaucrats".
watwut•9mo ago
Goverment projects do actually frequently end. Sometimes for good reasons, other times for wrong reasons - like conservatives not liking it when they work and are effective.
But it is not true they would all be infinite.
bko•9mo ago
> Regarding agency terminations through sunset provisions, in practice these have been rare. Despite the widespread adoption of sunset laws at the state level in the 1970s and 1980s (with 35 states enacting such laws), "few agencies have actually been terminated under these sunset provisions." At the federal level, Congress has used sunset provisions more sparingly and typically for specific statutes rather than entire agencies. [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/sunset-law)
As the saying goes, there's nothing as permanent as a temporary government program
sokoloff•9mo ago
And, more importantly, keep going on with a strategy that isn't actually helping the kids in the program... I can easily look past the government wasting an extra $50M/yr here and there, because that barely matters in the grand scheme of government waste, fraud, and inefficiency. But getting poor educational and life-preparation outcomes for generations of kids because of inertia is an entirely greater concern, at least to me.
chermi•9mo ago
Generally, there's far too little feedback and accountability when it comes to public policy intentions vs. outcomes. Our government (US) policies and program are basically running on an open loop, no one is ever comparing outcomes against goals/intentions.
Experimentation requires looking at results of the experiments.
dmvdoug•9mo ago
chermi•9mo ago
I don't appreciate the accusation that I'm not thinking about the children. It is precisely because I care about the children that I care about the possibility of a better system for them.
worik•9mo ago
Finland is an example of such a country.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/09/10-reasons-why-finla...