--- title: "Mark Zuckerberg’s Wife Is Shutting Down a School for Low Income Families" description: "Priscilla Chan's free school is shutting down operations amid anti-diversity rollbacks at her billionaire husband's enterprises." date: "2025-04-23" modified: "2025-04-23" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/mark-zuckerberg-wife-priscilla-chan-school-closure" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "dei" - "mark zuckerberg" - "Meta" - "priscilla chan" --- # Mark Zuckerberg’s Wife Is Shutting Down a School for Low Income Families ![Priscilla Chan's free school is shutting down operations amid anti-diversity rollbacks at her billionaire husband's enterprises.]() *\Image: Ian Tuttle / Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize / Futurism\* Priscilla Chan's tuition-free educational institution for low-income families, The Primary School, is shutting down operations after nearly 10 years — a move that comes amid anti-diversity rollbacks at her husband Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. In a [statement on its website](), the Primary School didn't indicate why it was closing its East Bay and East Palo Alto locations at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year and said only that it was a "very difficult decision" that came "after much deliberation." As [*Business Insider* pointed out](), however, the closure comes not only after [cofounder Meredith Liu died in 2023](), but also after Chan's husband — who is not involved directly with the school's operations — ended so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at his tech company and at their shared philanthropic venture. In February, [*The Guardian* reported]() that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the couple's for-profit charity that [funded the school](), had informed employees that it was eliminating both internal and external DEI programs due to the "shifting regulatory and legal landscape" surrounding such efforts. That move, notably, came just a few weeks after the charity [claimed it was *not* going to do away]() with its DEI programs in response to employees concerned that [Meta's massive shift]() away from such measures just ahead of Donald Trump's second inauguration. Unlike Meta and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which are both for-profit entities that instituted (and subsequently cut) inclusion programs, the nonprofit Primary School was quite literally founded on DEI principles. In a [description of its approach](), the school notes that the children and families they serve, [most of whom]() are low-income and Latino, "may be experiencing poverty, housing insecurity, racism, and other stressful and traumatic situations." Though that sort of language is par for the course in nonprofit world, it has been under attack in the Trump administration — not to mention the social networks Zuckerberg founded. Whatever her personal beliefs are, [Chan's appearance with Zuckerberg at Trump's inauguration]() — and the swift changes and closures that have followed at her companies — make it pretty clear that the social justice values espoused by her tuition-free schools for low-income kids in the Bay Area matter less than the alliance her husband seeks with the president. **More on DEI:** [*Pentagon Says It's Using AI to Delete Pages About History That's Too Woke*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()