Mark Zuckerberg Invests in the Future

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $45 billion, the worth of 99% of their Facebook shares, to charitable causes, designed to make the world a better place for their new born daughter.  This is a very generous gift.  You can rant all you want about them still being able to live an extraordinary life (little Max is not going to want for much), but the fact is the money is there’s and they could use it for anything they want.  For them to use it for a common good is laudable.

Zuckerberg’s largesse is nothing new in the super rich.  The philanthropic parade was actually started by John D. Rockefeller who gave away approximately $540 million (almost $9 billion in today’s dollars) before his death in 1937.   At this time, Zuckerberg joins fellow billionaires, like Warren Buffett, who have made it their goal to give away the vast majority of their fortunes.  I have a suggestion for a way to spend a small part of this money. 

            Let’s put our first money in a spot we know can return mightily on investment.  Let’s promote our best students.  While I certainly believe that beautiful schools and good materials, creative teachers and happy children are the best way to educate a generation, I also know that the best schools in the world won’t fix a spoiled child, disinterested parents and a culture that doesn’t value education.  I also believe that every school can produce some cream that will come to the top if promised a chance at a future.  I am even going to propose a way to pay for it.   

            Let’s make it easier for our best students, no matter what their color, race, religion or family circumstances, to get a cost free education.

            There will be about 3.3 million high school graduates this year.  If we take the top 10% of those grads we come to 330,000 students needing to head for college.  That education at public, in-state, four year colleges will average $20,339 (tuition, fees, room and board, transportation and personal expenses).   A little multiplication means that the total bill for the 2016 graduates for one year of college would be not quite $7 billion dollars.

Zuckerberg is pledging $45 Billion.  Warren Buffet is worth $62 billion.  Bill Gates has $56 billion.  Each of these men have said that they want to give away the majority of their fortunes.  I have a list of six other American multi-billionaires (each worth $39-$21 billion) who could take rotating turns footing the roughly $7 billion bill for each year’s graduates.  They would only have to cough it up once every 9 years, and that is before they recruit more contributors.   This would guarantee a college education for every child that graduates in the top 10% of his/her graduating class. 

Think of that, no child would be denied if he/she just scrambles to the top tier of the class.   What would the billionaires get?  Well, I would tell them they didn’t need to pay any personal income taxes.  How’s that for a trade?

            What will you see?  You will see kids from poor schools making the most of their opportunities.  You will see kids from middle class schools seeing a chance to go to school without encumbering themselves in debt.  You will see kids from rich schools recognizing a good deal.  And our billionaires aren’t being taxed.  They are making a private enterprise decision to invest in education. 

            I like rewarding excellence more than subsidizing mediocrity.

            Educating the best is one way to keep the faith.