The scion of the Gap, Inc. fortune has jumpstarted a $25 million fund with the goal of turning the Bay Area into a national hub for blended learning, the promising school model that combines individualized online learning and face-to-face classroom instruction.
With a sizable gift from John Fisher, the Silicon Schools Fund can move ahead with plans to underwrite 25 schools’ experiments in blended learning, within five years. The grants will be up to $700,000 – money that wiill underwrite startup costs of innovative new schools until they can become self-sustaining, according to Brian Greenberg, a former charter school principal and technology advocate who’s the founder and CEO of the new Silicon Schools Fund.