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- Jeff Bezos announced Bezos Academy in 2020, a tuition-free preschool for underserved kids.
- The school has since announced 14 locations nationwide — five are currently up and running.
- Bezos Academy is entirely funded by Bezos and is seemingly inspired by his own early education.
Jeff Bezos' preschool system is quietly expanding across the US.
Known as Bezos Academy, the tuition-free preschool opened its first location in Des Moines, Washington, in October 2020. Now, it's inked deals for new locations across the US, including an agreement with the City of Houston signed last week.
Here's why Bezos is turning his attention to early childhood education and everything we know about the program so far.
Bezos Academy's goal is to offer free education to underserved kids
Bezos Academy is a "Montessori-inspired" preschool that will serve children between the ages of 3 and 5. The schools will be full-day and year-round.
To be eligible to attend Bezos Academy, students' annual household income can be up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level — for example, a student whose household of four earns a total of $106,000 per year would be able to attend, according to the school's eligibility rules.
Half of the seats in each classroom are reserved for students in households that make up to 250% of the Federal Poverty Level, the school says.
Bezos Academy has already expanded to three states
There are currently 14 Bezos Academy locations: 1 in Orlando, Florida; 3 near Dallas, Texas; and 9 in Washington state. Four locations opened in October 2021, bringing the total to five operating schools — all are located in Washington.
Bezos Academy announced last week its latest location in Houston's Denver Harbor neighborhood. The two-classroom school will open this fall and will be "a game-changer for many families," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement.
"By focusing on underserved communities, we are ensuring that every child will have equitable opportunities for education that propels them to a meaningful and successful future," Turner said.
The schools are entirely funded by Bezos
Back in 2018, Bezos announced he was committing $2 billion to funding two philanthropic initiatives: the Day 1 Families Fund, which focuses on assisting families experiencing homelessness; and the Day 1 Academies Fund, which aimed to create a network of preschools for low-income families.
"We will build an organization to directly operate these preschools. I'm excited about that because it will give us the opportunity to learn, invent, and improve," Bezos wrote on Twitter at the time. "We'll use the same set of principles that have driven Amazon. Most important among those will be genuine, intense customer obsession. The child will be the customer."
The schools, which became Bezos Academy, are directly operated by Bezos' fund and run by President Mike George, Amazon's former vice president of Echo and Alexa.
Bezos Academy's curriculum seems to be inspired by Bezos' own experience
Bezos Academy says it relies on a Montessori-like curriculum, which emphasizes collaboration, discovery, and self-directed learning. Teachers are trained in the Montessori method and classrooms have sets of Montessori materials, which are intended to stimulate kids' senses.
Bezos himself attended Montessori school, and his mom told once The Wall Street Journal that Bezos would become "so engrossed in his activities as a Montessori preschooler that his teachers would literally have to pick him up out of his chair to go to the next task."
Bezos isn't the only tech executive with a Montessori background: Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page attended Montessori preschools as well.
source https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-free-preschool-bezos-academy-locations-curriculum-eligibility-2022-1