After Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100 million to Newark public schools and wanted to raise another $100 million for the cause in 2010, there has been controversy about the money. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) has won a legal fight with the city of Newark over releasing e-mails concerning the donations. ACLU-NJ Acting Executive Director Edward Barocas told NJ Today Senior Correspondent Desirée Taylor that his organization became involved in the issue to ensure public officials made public information available.
The Secondary Parent Council, a client of ACLU-NJ, asked that the e-mails be released to see if there were any conditions placed on the money that was donated by Zuckerberg and others, Barocas explained. He said the e-mails do offer some information, but there are larger issues at play. “Our greatest concern — the ACLU’s — and why we were involved in the case was because it seemed very unusual that Newark was trying to keep these documents confidential, behind closed doors,” he said.
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Barocas said the ACLU wasn’t looking for a scandal, but did find some points of interest in the e-mails, which the organization continues to look through. “Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook individuals sought to have some sort of mechanism where people from the community could donate as well as large contributors, but the city apparently did not want that, did not want local and small contributors,” he said.
In addition, Barocas said the city sought matching funds from other organizations, including one that is known to promote charter schools, which he said is what concerned the Secondary Parent Council.
According to the e-mails, Barocas said philanthropist Ray Chambers wanted to raise $1 million for Newark schools and the city did not accept it. He said the ACLU’s biggest concern is transparency, however.
“Why was Newark trying to keep this quiet? Why was Newark trying to make arguments that public officials conducting public business should have their public documents hidden from our view? And that’s why we got involved in the case,” Barocas said.
The legal battle got the information released, but Barocas said the process shouldn’t have taken legal action.
“We never think it’s worth the cost of a legal fight to try to keep public documents from the public,” Barocas said. “Our view is that public officials should always take the position that the default is to release documents unless there’s a specific reason why it should remain confidential.”