Now Trending: Celebrities Funding Charter Schools

With rap mogul — Sean “Diddy’s” — recent commitment to opening the doors of a new charter school, we can see a new celebrity trend forming. It has become apparent that celebrities are continuously funding and getting involved with charter schools and private boarding schools around the country. Diddy, being the most recent celeb to hop on board, is following the lead of other big names such as Oprah, Pitbull, Mark Zuckerberg and Will Smith. Before we dig into the newest celebrity outreach trend, let’s clearly define the ambiguity of charter schools. 

 

Differentiation Between Schools
 

First, public schools are all operated on tax dollars. Meaning, they are free for anyone to attend and follow state guidelines in terms of having no religious, race, or gender specifications. Private boarding schools, however, depend on their own funding in which students must apply and pay to attend. They can also be associated with a religious group or other curriculum not regulated by state standards. As for charter schools, they offer a hybrid education between public and private boarding schools. This means, charter schools are free to attend and don’t discriminate but they usually require separate applications for enrollment.

 

Celebrities and Charter Schools

From Oprah’s VIP-funded schools abroad, to Angelina Jolie’s girl school of Kabul and Shakira’s nonprofit opening of schools in Columbia, we have seen celebrities get highly involved with the shaping of next generation minds, but are charter schools the newest celebrity trend? Maybe not, but on Monday, March 28th, Diddy may have just made it one when he opened a social justice-focused charter school in his hometown — Harlem, New York. Diddy, being one of the least expected celebrities to get involved in the charter and private boarding schools game, is confident he found the right place to donate his wealth.

 

High Rewards

Whether it’s celebrities just jumping on the charter school bandwagon, or that they really are passionate about the education of the young generation, the action is noted to have high rewards — both for the celebrity and the youth. First off, it looks good to the public. The gesture is both generous, sincere and inspiring to fans and followers, which produces high rewards for celebrity brands — but more importantly — the youth generation and world of education are also benefiting. Funding and opening charter schools is only providing better education opportunities for this country and that has high rewards in itself.

Alyssa Koenig is an academic writer for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. Information provided by Wasatch Academy. Follow on Twitter.