This past weekend, Jay-Z and his company Roc Nation announced their “Dine & Learn” series to promote $300 million in scholarships for low-income Philadelphia households. The money is meant to help underprivileged youth bypass the public school system and attend prestigious private schools instead. On the surface, it seems like another of Jay-Z’s philanthropic ventures, maybe even an extension of his scholarship-giving Shawn Carter Foundation. But the Brooklyn-born rapper has come under fire for the seemingly selfless move. If you dig a little bit beneath the surface, the criticisms start to gain weight. All may not be as it seems with these latest Jay-Z-Roc Nation scholarships.
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What Jay-Z & Roc Nation’s $300 Million Initiative Really Is
What many suspect is happening here is that Jay-Z is leveraging his influence and power to host and promote a 10-event series about a Republican-backed educational bill. These events aim to inform residents about Senate Bill 757, or the “Pennsylvania Award for Student Success” (PASS). This is what many perceive to essentially be a Republican school voucher program. The program would reportedly reroute $300 million in taxpayer dollars to fund charter and private schools.
On one hand, the program allows students to move out of an underfunded and failing school system. On the other, that’s $300 million that those same public schools will never see – and that private schools will essentially be handed. And then there's the question of what will happen to those who don't win any Jay-Z and Roc Nation-backed scholarships.
Jay-Z & Jeff Yass: An Odd Couple
Another strange part of this whole announcement is that it means Jay-Z is pairing up with Jeff Yass. The Philadelphia native is a billionaire conservative and a major investor in TikTok. Commentators have speculated that Yass influenced Trump’s side-switching on the TikTok ban bill that went through Congress earlier this year. After meeting with Yass at Mar-a-Lago in March, Trump flipped from supporting a ban on the app to opposing a ban.
Jeff Yass is also well-known for an anti-public school stance, pushing school choice policies and programs. Essentially, these policies and programs give families options for schooling beyond their local district. So, the public has been left wondering why Jay-Z would ever pair up with Yass. Critics argue that the PASS bill has an underhanded goal of diverting and exhausting public school funding. Why exactly would Jay-Z and Roc Nation support these scholarships?
Roc Nation’s Position
Well, truthfully, all we have at the moment is Roc Nation’s public comments. The company’s CEO, Desiree Perez, told the media that “what we are backing is education…We’re just educating [people], which I would think everyone wants people to make informed decisions.” So, the company’s current stance is that they are simply spreading awareness for educational options in Philadelphia. Still, many city residents aren’t so sure a school voucher program is the correct way to handle the situation. Later in her HuffPost interview, Perez stated “The kids in these zip codes are suffering right now. If you have a better solution, aside from making them wait until the public school system can get it together with the funding they are receiving, I am all ears.”
The Philadephia public school system’s situation is quite complex, and the public has reacted with varying nuanced opinions on Jay-Z’s involvement. Some have said that letting some low-income youth attend private schools ultimately hurts the majority left behind. Others have said that Jay-Z is simply trying to help level the playing field since $300 million wouldn’t fix Philadelphia’s public schools. Amid this storm of public responses, it remains unclear what Jay-Z and Roc Nation's motives are for the scholarships. All we have at this time is his CEO's public statements.