A California school co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg’s wife that championed DEI values is closing next year after a decade of operation.
The Primary School, a tuition-free private school with locations in East Palo Alto and East Bay, California, is shutting its doors at the end of the 2025-2026 school year, it said in an announcement on its website. It was co-founded by Priscilla Chan and educator Meredith Liu and opened its first location in 2016. Liu died in 2023.
The school said the decision to close was made “after much deliberation.”
“This was a very difficult decision, and we are committed to ensuring a thoughtful and supportive transition for students and families over the next year,” the announcement read.
The school served hundreds of students as young as 1 year old to middle school age.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Chan and Zuckerberg’s science-focused philanthropic organization, will spend $50 million over the next few years in the schools’ communities to support the transition, including through 529 education savings plans for students and transition specialists for families.
The school’s website highlights its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, which have recently been rolled back at Zuckerberg’s businesses.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative told staff in February it was ending its DEI efforts “given the shifting regulatory and legal landscape” after initially assuring staff it’d remain committed to DEI, The Guardian reported.
In January, Meta ended its own DEI programs, similarly citing “the shifting legal and policy landscape.”
The moves could signal further efforts by the Zuckerbergs to stay on the Trump administration’s good side for his second term in office, especially after Trump frequently lambasted Zuckerberg, Meta, and Big Tech more broadly in his first four years in the White House.
Meta was one of the first companies to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund this time around, and Zuckerberg and Chan were among the billionaire “tech broligarchy” elites who sat front-row at Trump’s inauguration. Meta was also one of several corporate sponsors for The White House’s recent Easter Egg Roll.
A spokesperson for Primary School declined to comment beyond what was posted to its website.
Do you have information to share on the closure of The Primary School? Contact this reporter from a non-work device and email at sjackson@businessinsider.com.
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