(Mrs.) Jobs on Education

“The system was created for the work force we needed 100 years ago” ~ Laurene Powell Jobs

The Billionaires Club has been greatly concerned with our students’ education enough so to put their own money behind making formative change. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been working advocating for education.

Now, according to The New York Times, Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of the late Apple co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer Steve Jobs is also coming forward by initially committing $50 million to the advocacy organization she founded, The Emerson Collective. The Emerson Collective is an advocate for policies concerning education and immigration reform, social justice, and environmental conservation.

In an interview with the New York Times Mrs. Jobs said, “The system was created for the work force we needed 100 years ago”, she went on to say, “Things are not working the way we want it to be working. We’ve seen a lot of incremental changes over the last several years, but we’re saying, ‘Start from scratch.’ ”

Mrs. Jobs told the Times first assignment is named XQ: The Super School Project, the project will bring teams of educators, students, as well as leaders from other sectors, to develop highly effective public high school; altering school schedules, curriculums and technologies. Then during 2016 a group of judges will pick as many as 10 of the best ideas to fund.

This is not Mrs. Jobs first advocacy efforts for education, for years Mrs. Jobs funded College Track, which assisted economically disadvantaged students in the United States to apply for and be successful in college.

Apple has always had education at the core of their product development and so it is exciting that Mrs. Jobs will be taking a role in the future of our public schools. In addition of all the grade levels, it is high school that I feel needs an improvement in technology integration into curriculum.  Mrs. Job’s project recognizes this and hopes to positively improve it.

I will be eagerly watching what XQ: The Super School Project comes up with for our students. Stay tune…

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