SpaceX founder Elon Musk is supporting education in South Texas, where the aerospace company is developing the Starship spacecraft at Boca Chica Beach in Cameron County. The region is along the border with Mexico and approximately 30 minutes away from Brownsville, Texas. Last month, Musk announced he would donate $20 million dollars to Cameron County schools and $10 million to the City of Brownsville for revitalizing the city’s downtown area.
This week, the Musk Foundation donated over $2 Million dollars to the Brownsville Independent School District (BISD) which manages 54 public schools in Cameron County that provide education to 43,028 students from pre-kindergarten to high schools that offer early college programs. BISD also provides education and care for students with special needs. BISD shared in a press release that the Musk Foundation awarded the school district a total of $2,412,000 (two million four hundred twelve thousand dollars). The amount was determined based on school enrollment and is part of the $20 Million Musk pledged for education within the Cameron County region. “We are very grateful for the donation from the Musk Foundation,” said Dr. René Gutiérrez, BISD superintendent. “We are currently working on a plan to expand several of our Career and Technical Education programs and academies. We are also going to be announcing in the next couple of weeks our final plan with full details to the public.”
The donation comes after the Musk Foundation donated $459,000 dollars to IDEA Public Schools in South Texas earlier this week (Read more in previous TESMANIAN article linked below). It is important to fund education programs in Cameron County because it is from where future SpaceX and NASA astronauts will liftoff aboard Starship to explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The Musk Foundation’s purpose is to primarily fund activities related to science and engineering education, space exploration and renewable energy advocacy and research, provide funding for pediatric research, and the ‘development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity.’
Elon Musk Foundation Donates Over $400K To IDEA Public Schools In South Texashttps://t.co/arBMj0HaED
— Tesmanian.com (@Tesmanian_com) April 20, 2021
Source: Tesmanian.com
Author's note: Thanks for supporting TESMANIAN! Twitter: Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
Featured Image Source: BISD
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
