Billionaire and Republican megadonor is funding scholarships for students at closing Philly schools

“Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city’s public school system. An organization funded by Pennsylvania billionaire and Republican megadonor Jeffrey Yass is offering scholarships for Philly students displaced by school closures to enroll in private schools. This week, the Yass Prize — an organization founded by Yass and his wife Janine — announced new “Opportunity Knocks” scholarships . The scholarships will award $8,000 each year through high school graduation for 500 students whose schools are being closed under the district’s recently approved facilities plan . Caroline Allen, director of the Yass Prize, said the scholarships are intended to provide families with stability during a time of uncertainty in the district. “We’re really capitalizing on this time,” Allen said. Though no schools will close until 2027, Allen said “we don’t want to wait for two years for these schools to close down to do something.” Allen said students who are deemed eligible and receive the scholarships could attend any of the 16 private schools in the city that have received the Yass Prize and have been “vetted” as “sustainable, transformational, outstanding and permissionless.” Those private schools are already preparing to receive an influx of students from district schools that are closing or merging, Allen said. Yass is the richest person in the state and is well known for his support of charter schools and school vouchers . Yass critics in the public education advocacy space have condemned the scholarships as attempts to lure students away from the public school system. Aly Shaw, senior research analyst at the LittleSis Public Accountability Initiative, a nonprofit research firm, said she’s been tracking Yass’s political spending and was not surprised to see his name on scholarships aimed at drawing students away from public schools. “This is the disaster capitalism playbook exactly,” Shaw said, referring to the exploitation of crises for profit. She pointed to Yass’s public support for school privatization and aversion to paying taxes as actions that she said have drained funding from public schools. The scholarships are evidence of Yass “taking advantage of a disaster that he created to promote private schools,” Shaw said. The scholarship applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to the first 500 students who complete all required steps, including an “eligibility review” and school enrollment applications, Allen said. Through the Center for Education Reform, a group that supports vouchers and similar policies, the Yass Prize has awarded over $60 million to more than 225 organizations across 45 states since 2021. Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org .

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