NYC Will Open 20 New Schools With Help From Private Money

NEW YORK — Two private nonprofit groups will use their deep pockets to help New York City open 20 new public schools in the next three years, city officials said Thursday.

The city will establish the new schools and revamp 20 existing ones through a $32 million partnership with the California-based XQ Institute and the Robin Hood Foundation, a local anti-poverty charity.

The nonprofits will put up half the money for the program in which teams of teachers, students, parents and others will submit proposals for how the new and retooled schools should work, officials said.

"This is a big endorsement of public education in New York City," de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement. "With this support, we’re going to help educators, students and communities come together to design new schools and re-design existing ones that will challenge our kids and increase academic rigor."

The program will support 20 new and revamped high schools with at least one new school in each borough, officials said. The other 20 will be a mix of elementary and middle schools, according to the mayor's office. None of the new schools will have selective admissions schemes, officials say.

The XQ Institute — co-founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple magnate Steve Jobs — will put $10 million toward implementing plans for as many as 10 high schools, which will join the organization's nationwide cadre of "community-developed schools," officials said.

"The City’s deep commitment to community agency gives school teams the tools, permission, and flexibility to think and act boldly so all students get what they need — and ensure those visions are sustained," Russlyn Ali, XQ's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. "That is why we are so excited to partner in this effort to harness the power of community to transform City high schools into engines of excellence and equity."

Robin Hood, for its part, will spend up to $5 million to help create 10 brand-new schools for the city's most underserved kids, the mayor's office said. Another $1 million from the group will help the city expand professional development through partnerships between district and charter schools, according to officials.

Local design teams are already being formed and will submit proposals for the new and reimagined schools starting this month, the mayor's office said. The first round of designs will be announced this coming May, officials said.

The city says it is looking for more funders to support the new initiative, for which private money will flow through the Fund for Public Schools, a partner of the Department of Education.