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Diddy Donates One Million Dollars To Fund Charter School In Bronx

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 18:03 PST, Oct 23, 2018

Famous ’90s rapper and music mogul Diddy (formerly known as P. Diddy, Puffy, Puff Daddy, and Sean Combs) has taken a stand for underprivileged children in New York City area by donating a cool million towards the start of a new charter school in the Bronx area.

“Special announcement, special announcement,” Diddy exclaimed in a video clip announcing the news to his 11.8 million Instagram followers less than 12 hours ago. In that time, the post has accumulated over 86,000 likes and just shy of 5,000 comments.

Diddy’s followers praised him for his kind gesture. Many even suggested locations for his next charter school as they pointed out there were children in need all over the U.S.

Born and raised in Harlem, NY, Diddy is an education advocate and a longtime supporter of academics. Having experienced the subpar education systems firsthand when he was growing up, he recognizes the children in areas like this are historically disadvantaged and stresses access to quality education can drastically improve their lives.

According to a USA Today, Diddy has put up a million dollars of his own money to help open and jump start a new charter school location in the Bronx area. According to his Instagram video clip, he decided to donate the money to make sure the school gets off on the right foot.

The school will be an extension of the Capital Preparatory School Network. The location is set to open its doors for the 2019-2020 school year. It plans to fulfill a starting enrollment of 160 students in the 6th and 7th grade. The eventual plan is to expand to serve around 650 students for grades 6-11 within the next five-year period.

This is not the first time Diddy has put his efforts toward advocating for children’s education. The artist turned businessman worked on a similar project a few years back when he pushed for the creation of another Capital Prep school in Harlem.

According to a piece published in the New York Times two years ago, the Capital Prep Network already had schools in Hartford, Connecticut, where they existed as a year-round magnet school. The magnet school boasted of higher graduation and college acceptances rates than average high schools in the area.

Diddy worked closely with the founder of the school network, Steve Perry, to expand the network to New York. The duo shared the hopes of replicating the curriculum model used at the schools in Hartford.

Perry originally said he resisted Combs’ request to open a new school in New York, suggesting instead that they work first on an after-school program or a scholarship program. Diddy, however, remained adamant that a school was what the children in the area truly needed.

“It’s important to note it was he who inspired our team to come in and expand into New York,” Perry said throwing credit to Diddy.

In a statement released to TMZ, the artist says his passion and dedication to the project is “about educating our children, bringing them up as leaders.”

It is suspected that Diddy has further plans to continue supporting educational advances in underprivileged areas.

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