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Zuckerchan toss another $120 MEEELLION to schools in charity push

Facebook boss and wife to fund classroom tech programs

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg is breaking out his wallet to further technology education and training in schools.

Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan have announced that they will donate $120m to sponsor a program that will fund equipment in classrooms and provide training and support for students transitioning from primary to high school (8th to 9th grade).

The program, dubbed Startup: Education, will run for the next five years and will initially be offered in the San Francisco, Redwood City, and Ravenswood school districts in the Bay Area.

"Education is incredibly expensive and this is a drop in the bucket," Chan said in an interview with the Associated Press announcing the campaign.

"What we are trying to do is catalyze change by exploring and promoting the development of new interventions and new models," she said.

The donation is the latest in an ongoing philanthropic effort by the Facebook founder and his pediatrician wife. The couple has donated well over a billion dollars to local charities this year, including a $992.2m contribution to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

In 2012, Zuckerberg and Chan awarded the foundation with a package of Facebook stock which was at the time valued at $498.7m, and in 2010 the Facebook founder donated $100m to schools in Newark, New Jersey.

The philanthropic efforts have won Zuckerberg and Chan a place at the top of the US philanthropic donation rankings. The couple's cash contributions have topped those of fellow tycoons Phil Knight of Nike and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Least you worry that Zuck will donate himself into the poor house, rest assured that with an estimated net worth of $28bn, he still has plenty of cash to go around. ®

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