Classroom Technology

Celebrities Mobilize to Launch #BestSchoolDay Campaign to Support Classroom Projects

By Elisha McNeil — March 10, 2016 1 min read
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The non-profit education organization DonorsChoose.org announced today that a group of celebrities, athletes, and more have pledged to “flash fund” over $14 million for over 11,000 public school classroom projects in communities across the country as part of what’s being tagged as the #BestSchoolDay campaign.

Comedian Stephen Colbert, a DonorsChoose board member since 2009, described the #BestSchoolDay campaign on CBS This Morning as a call to action for people to help fund supplies and resources for teachers in high-need communities.

"#BestSchoolDay is probably the best thing I’ve ever been involved in,” Colbert told CBS This Morning on Thursday. “The reason they’re doing it and the reason I’m doing it is because we know the real heroes are the teachers.”

Colbert first got involved with DonorsChoose.org when he ran for the South Carolina Democratic Primary in 2007 and donated money from supporters to fund classroom projects in his home state. When Colbert left his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report,” last December, he sold off pieces from the set in his studio and raised enough money to fund every classroom project in South Carolina.

Also on the list of the flash fund donors are such names as Bill Gates, Dwight Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel Jackson, Serena Williams, and more.

Before today, more than $400 million has been raised on DonorsChoose.org to fund more than 700,000 education projects posted by nearly 300,000 teachers—94 percent of whom said their funded projects increased their effectiveness in the classroom, according to the site.

The goal for today’s #BestSchoolDay campaign is to fulfill 20,000 classroom projects. So far, over 15,000 projects have been funded. You can visit DonorsChoose.org to list a classroom project in need of support and to see what specific projects are being funded and where.


More on late-night hosts getting involved in education:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.