George Lucas Donates Billions to Education
In what can be seen as one of the most selfless acts in the history of Hollywood, it
has been reported that George Lucas – who recently signed a deal to sell Lucasfilm to Disney for some odd four BILLION dollars – will donate the money from that sale to, of all things, education.
Amidst the political climate of the last few years, education has been a paramount arguing point for many politicians. Some want to send funding rights back to states, and some want to further federal education mandates and testing. It is in that ball of confusion, though, where Lucas has decided to step up and actually make a difference.
It was in 2010 when Lucas and a handful of other media moguls (Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Bloomberg included) signed the Giving Pledge, led by Bill and Melinda Gates. In signing the pledge, Lucas vowed to donate a vast majority of his wealth to charity and it would seem that this deal with Disney, which would have brought him just over four billion dollars in profit, is in and out of his hands as fast as you can bat an eye.
“I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education […] It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future—and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt—as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.” – via Hollywood Reporter
Where the climate of education is changing, becoming both more expensive out of secondary schools and more rigorous during primary education, the need for practical funding is becoming more and more necessary. George Lucas’ vow to donate his wealth to fund education shows just how important education really is. It is in this donation where he, along with many others, hopes to encourage learning. This donation may well be the reason another creative genius like George Lucas rises from a dying public school to pen something like Star Wars for future generations.
To wrap this up in a nice little cliché, perhaps even a pun, some may say that George Lucas’ donation is…a new hope?
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