(WXYZ) — Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is donating $20 million to Detroit public schools, the Detroit Public Schools Community District confirmed Thursday.
According to the superintendent of the DPSCD, the district will use the funds to raise student achievement. The superintendent said they intend to hire more academic interventionists to work with students. They expect to discuss their plans with the school board in January.
“We are proud and excited to receive this gift from Mackenzie Scott! It speaks to our improvement over the past five years as a District, especially through strategic planning tied to fiscal management. We will ensure the funds are used to improve the performance of our students and address other challenges that impact the outcomes of our students,” said Dr. Nikolai Vitti, Superintendent, DPSCD in a press release.
Scott announced almost $2 billion in donations in a short blog post Monday that emphasized her interest in supporting people from underserved communities.
The announcement Monday brought the amount she’s said she’s given to around $14 billion to some 1,500 organizations. In the post, she also repeated a promise first made in December last year to release a database of the organizations to which she’s donated.
Scott's ex-husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, separately said in an interview with CNN Monday that he would give away the majority of his wealth in his lifetime.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT)
