Dive Brief:

• On Tuesday, the Salesforce Foundation once again donated $6 million to San Francisco Unified School District for STEM-related instruction.
• The foundation has supported the district’s computer science expansion and other initiatives since last fall, to the tune of almost $14 million, and originally helped pay for more devices in classrooms.
• This time around, the foundation is focusing solely on people: The latest $6 million will help with training for school leaders and teachers, in addition to the hiring of 14 educators to work with students and teachers on STEM.

Dive Insight:

In a recent story from TechCrunch, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff appeared to rebuke Los Angeles’ device-focused approach during a visit to a sixth grade classroom at Presidio Middle School. 

Benioff reportedly asked students, “Do you guys like iPads? Have you seen more iPads around school lately?” The students called back, “No!” to which Benioff responded, “That’s because we got you books.” 

Instead, Benioff emphasizes the need for investing the people that make schools run, from the superintendent to teachers and parents. “Money alone doesn’t help schools. What helps schools is all of us embracing our schools, our school board and our great superintendent,” he told TechCrunch. 

The investment in human capital in schools represents a marked shift from initiatives like Los Angeles’ abandoned iPad program, where the promise of new devices grabbed people’s imagination. It’s an interesting note to strike, given the challenges the tech-centric region faces. The Bay Area is facing teacher shortages, which are exacerbated by unaffordable housing driven by tech worker demands. Roughly a third of San Francisco’s students attend private schools.

“If you listen to what Mr. Benioff says, they’re investing in our schools with the only return expected being a great education,” San Francisco Superintendent Robert Carranza told TechCrunch. That’s a departure from other tech investments in public school transformations, where big donations from Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg backed massive overhauls and smaller gifts backed things like after school programs.