The Primary School, a tuition-free private school located in East Palo Alto, will close its doors at the end of the 2025-26 school year. The school was founded in 2016 by pediatrician, educator and philanthropist Priscilla Chan – along with her husband, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg – as part of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 

The school’s stated mission is “integrating health care, education and family support” to serve low-income families in a holistic, community-based model and CZI initially said it was created with the intention of demonstrating how to support diverse communities of children and families in public school systems. 

As a result of the closure, more than 400 students will have to move to schools in the Ravenswood City School District. To offset the impact, CZI announced it would contribute $50 million toward education savings plans, parent engagement, early childhood programs and health care services for the transitioning families. 

While this financial commitment is significant, The Campanile condemns the abrupt and unexplained closure of The Primary School. Although for nine years the school did support low-income families in East Palo Alto, its closure will harm these same communities more than if CZI hadn’t started the school in the first place. For a school founded on the belief that supporting the whole child requires long-term commitment, ending operations with minimal notice and no justification undermines the very values it once upheld.  

The first line of The Primary School’s “Who We Are” states “We believe that raising a child is a team effort,” and The Campanile could not agree more. This school was established to provide a network of parents, educators, pediatricians and mental health providers –– something all kids should have. 

However, by stripping away this supportive “team effort” the school built up over nine years, The Primary School is abandoning the families it was created to serve. These kids –– almost half of whom have Individualized Education Plans, and many of whom are comfortable and adjusted in their school community –– will now be forced to enter a new unfamiliar environment without the same level of individualized support. 

Additionally, the decision was made with little to no transparency. In the press release announcing the decision, no reason was given for the closure; only that it was a “very difficult” decision.  

While CZI’s $50 million investment into the Ravenswood School District is a significant amount, a donation alone does not solve issues of systemic racism, marginalization of communities and disparities in education — and that’s why The Primary School was so unique. It was designed to take care of the whole child, to support entire families and to integrate healthcare and social-emotional learning into education so students could reach above  socioeconomic barriers. To strip away these opportunities without explanation is a serious betrayal to the families impacted on the behalf of CZI. 

Zuckerberg has a net worth of over $200 billion and currently stands as the third richest person in the world. The Campanile understands private business owners have the right to choose how they spend their money. However, when these decisions harm other’s lives, an appropriate justification is required.

The wealthy are not obligated to give. But when billionaires initiate systems of support that families come to rely on, abruptly withdrawing this support is unconscionable. The decision to close this school not only hurts families; it tells them that their futures were conditional, experimental and dispensable.

It’s sickening to know students who live mere miles away,  surrounded by Silicon Valley’s immense wealth, can be abruptly abandoned because a philanthropic organization suddenly choses to withdraw its support with no explanation. 

Despite its dissolution, let’s not forget the core values of The Primary School –– that raising a child requires a team –– and work with the Palo Alto community to provide overdue financial aid for lower-income education in East Palo Alto. 

If CZI truly believes that raising a child requires a team, then it bears the responsibility of staying in the game long enough to win.